CHAN: Eagles blinked in Abidjan – Akpeyi

Super Eagles goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi, has said anticipation of harassment from the Ivoirians caused the team defeat in Saturday’s final qualifying match of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) at the Stade Robert Champroux in Abidjan.

The Eagles lost 0-2 to the Ivoirians courtesy of a first half brace from Kevin Koelly Zougoula but the Nigerians qualified for the biennial football fiesta in South Africa next year on superior 4-3 aggregate score line.

 

Akpeyi told supersport.com that his side was overwhelmed by the expected Ivoirians antics to pay attention to the game at hand which made them to concede two quick goals in the grudge encounter.

“We were overwhelmed by the expected harassment and antics of the Ivoirians and it affected our confidence level leading to silly mistakes that caused us the two quick goals though the penalty was clearly undeserved.

“I think the Ivoirians took advantage of the momentary confused state of mind to show brilliance and domination in the first half of the game but after the half time pep talk from the coaches we came strongly in the second half and were able to cage them leaving the score line at 0-2.

“The Ivoirians were not superior only that we allowed the presumed attack from the side’s supporters to overwhelm us. It was a mind thing and we almost paid dearly for it but thank God we came back to our senses and fought hard to pick the qualification ticket.We’re wiser right now and won’t suffer such psychological break down in our subsequent matches, “ Akpeyi said.

 

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