The Super Eagles home-based team is through to the 2018 CHAN competition after defeating the Squirrels of Benin 2-0 in the second leg of their qualifiers, making it 2-1 on aggregates.
The Eagles lost 1-0 last weekend and were hard pressed to get the victory after they failed to hold on to the last minute in the first leg, conceding a late penalty in Cotonou.
Two goals in each half by home boy, Rabiu Ali and Kingsley Eduwo gave the Eagles the victory while goalkeeper, Ikechukwu Ezenwa came to the rescue of the Super Eagles when he saved a second half penalty.
Speaking after the game, the coach of the team, Salisu Yusuf, said the players failed to play totally to instruction after making some mistakes that could have been costly.
He however assured that the members of the technical crew are going to work hard on the team, correcting some of the mistakes noticed ahead of the WAFU Cup scheduled for Ghana next month.
“They failed to play 100percent to instruction, they made some mistakes that would have been costly, but we are going to work hard on the mistakes noticed ahead of the WAFU cup so that we can have a better team going to CHAN,” he said.
Speaking further he praised the goalkeeper trainers for helping the goalkeepers during training leading to Ezenwa stopping a penalty in the game while also applauding the level of play of the Squirrels.
Nigeria will join 15 others including host, Kenya for the next edition of the CHAN competition in 2018.