Sand Eagles miss Beach Soccer AFCON title

Defending champions Senegal beat Nigeria’s Super Sand Eagles 6-1 to retain CAF Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt on Friday afternoon.

The Lions of Teranga and Nigeria had met in their opening game with the Senegalese winning 2-0 on penalties after a 4-4 stalemate.

Egypt defeated Morocco 3-2 to win the third place match.

Sand Eagles are hoping to win their third title after victories in 2007 and 2009 but Senegal ended that hope as they win their fifth title in Sharm El Sheikh.

It will be recalled that two years ago in Lagos, Senegal defeated hosts Nigeria 8-4 to win the title.

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The Super Sand Eagles will now have to begin preparation for the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup which will hold in Paraguay from November 21 to December 1 alongside the African champions Senegal.

Meanwhile, Abu Azeez, the Nigerian talisman, wasted no time at all in laying his side’s claim to the African throne, netting with just seconds gone to give the Eagles an early lead. But Senegal were back at the men in green in a flash, as Diange found the space to get strike them back on level terms.

Then Diassy, who had been in electric form throughout the tournament, got his name on the scoresheet too, grabbing the lead for Senegal. The following period of play saw a tantalisingly close contest, with Senegal keeping their very slender lead intact and the score remained unchanged until the last period.

Going into the third period, the match was tense and tight. The grand prize was still anyone’s for the taking, even though Senegal had the slimmest of advantages. However, the Senegalese had an extra gear to shift into, and suddenly threw everything they had at the Nigerians, who had done well to keep pace with their opponents.

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The boosted offensive began with Fall who increased the advantage to two goals when he saw the keeper, Paul, off his line to send the net rippling. Then Raoul controlled the ball, whilst holding off a defender, to swivel and shoot to make it four to Senegal.

He scored again moments later, twisting and turning away from two defenders to drive a low shot past Paul. It was now 1-5, and when Diange ran onto a lay off to power a first-time shot home to make it six with just a minute to go, the match was out of reach for Nigeria.

As the final whistle blew, the victory was decisive and the title was in the bag for a fourth time in five years.