Ikechukwu Ezenwa, CHAN goalkeeper
Former Nigeria’s technical adviser, Bonfrere Jo believes the Imama Amakapabo-led coaching crew made huge tactical blunder which led to the 3-4 loss suffered by the Super Eagles at the hands of the Sparrow Hawks of Togo to miss the 2020 African Nations Championships.
Nigeria last weekend at the Agege Township Stadium, Lagos, defeated Togo 2-0 in the final qualifiers courtesy of a brace from Sikiru Alimi but failed to qualify for the 2020 CHAN having lost 1-4 in the first leg tie in Lome, Togo.
Bonfrere who was at the stadium to watch the game on Saturday noted that the Eagles should have made use of the wings more than they did against a more organised Togolese side.
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“They should have been a little bit smarter, the number 9 (Nyima Nwangwua) should have been substituted because he couldn’t do anything with the balls directed at him.
“The second point is, if Nigeria had done something from the wings, left and right is much more dangerous than playing from the backline.
“The long balls did not help the team because Togo had tall defenders to deal with them,” Bonfrere who led Nigeria’s Dream Team I to win the Atlanta ’96 Olympics gold told brila.net.
The Dutchman who has been on a scouting mission in Nigeria for the past three weeks, however, failed to comment on the current situation of the Nigeria professional football league.
“I’ve not been following the league [NPFL], I have only watched the senior national team play in Russia [World Cup] and at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt,” said.
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Bonfrere who coached Nigeria to a second-place finish at the 2000 AFCON hosted by Nigeria and Ghana.
Meanwhile, two-goal hero, Alimi said after the game: “It’s quite unfortunate that we couldn’t make it to CHAN 2020, though we gave our all in both games. I think we got our tactics right, but we were just unlucky.”
It will be recalled that Nigeria lost in the final of the 2018 CHAN to hosts Morocco.
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