Guinea 2-0 Nigeria [2-0 agg]: Olympic Eagles crash out of U23 Afcon qualifiers

By Oyediji Oluwaseun Babatunde

Nigeria’s U-23 national team Super failed in their bid to qualify for the 2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations after playing after a 2-0 loss to Guinea in the return leg of the qualifiers in Rabat, Morocco.

The 1996 Olympic champions had played out a 0-0 draw in the first leg last week in Abuja and needed a win or score draw to seal a place at the U-23 AFCON on Tuesday, but unfortunately they could not achieve it.

After a barren first half, the Guineans came out smoking in the second half as Algassime Bah gave Guinea the breakthrough in the 61st minute giving the hosts a goal advantage.

14 minutes later, Alseny Soumah compounded the woes of Salisu Yusuf’s side when he doubled the lead for Guinea to take the game out of Nigeria’s reach.

The result saw Guinea claim a 2-0 aggregate triumph and qualified for the 2023 U-23 AFCON in Morocco which will serve as the qualifying tournament for the football event of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

For Salisu Yusuf’s team, it’s the end of the road as Nigeria subsequently missed out on two straight Olympics since 2016 when the team secured a bronze medal finish in Brazil.

The development marked a back-to-back failure to attend the Summer Olympics after the team failed to qualify for Tokyo 2020. It was also the second qualifying tournament that Yusuf will fail to book a ticket after his failure with the CHAN Eagles on missing the 2023 Championship of African Nations in Algeria.