Super Eagles B head coach Salisu Yusuf is confident his side have what it takes to overturn their deficit to Ghana and qualify for the 2023 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Algeria.
The Nigerian team lost 2-0 to Ghana’s Black Galaxies last Sunday in Cape Coast in the first leg of the final qualifying round tie, and Salisu’s men must win by a three-goal margin to advance to the tournament.
The second led is scheduled for tomorrow at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
Salisu insisted that his players have moved on from the loss to Ghana in Cape Coast and are determined to qualify for the competition, which is designed for national teams with solely home-based players.
Salisu, who led the Super Eagles B to the final of the 2018 CHAN in Morocco, said in Abuja yesterday that the team’s concentration is on how to score enough goals to overturn the deficit from the away leg.
“What is past is past and that is the case with the match we played in Ghana. Now we are looking forward to a good match on Saturday,” the former Rangers coach said.
“We are doing all we need to do to achieve our utmost desire to be in Algeria next year. There may have been one or two lapses that caught us on the bad end in Cape Coast but we can’t continue to dwell on that. We want to achieve a good result on Saturday.”
Yusuf suggested that he would be keeping faith in most of the players that featured in that defeat in Ghana, trusting them to achieve a turnaround tomorrow.
“It is going to be more like 88 to 90 percent of the team we presented in Ghana last Sunday,” he said.
“Remember that Sadiq Abubakar was injured in a moment we thought should have produced a penalty kick for us. He has not recovered fully and so may not feature.”
Incidentally, it was Ghana’s main national team, the Black Stars, who eliminated the main Super Eagles from the Qatar 2022 World Cup on the away goals rule.
The first leg in Kumasi ended goalless and the return leg in Abuja finished 1-1.
