Nigeria’s home-based Eagles captain Mfon Udoh believes his side will bounce back from Sunday’s shock 4-1 defeat to Togo to qualify for the next year’s Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) in Cameroon.
Super Eagles took an early lead with Sunusi Ibrahim, the joint-top scorer in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) last season, scoring in the eighth-minute.
Togo rallied back swiftly as Richard Nane pulled the home team level in the 16th minute of the game played at Stade de Kegue in Lome.
More goals from Tchakei Marouf in the 75th minute and Ashraf Agoro in stoppage time saw the hosts securing a healthy 4-1 lead going into the second leg.
Overall, Super Eagles looked frustrated by the defensive approach of the home side and many chances failed to convert in the game.
“We were very unfortunate to lose, we didn’t play according to the instructions of the coaches, too many mistakes and lack of concentration but the deeds have already been done. We have enough time to correct all our errors,” Udoh told reporters.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “We have been wounded, bruised and back are against the wall but we’ll fight back like wounded lions and regain our pride, the pride of African football.” [/perfectpullquote]
In the same vein, Super Eagles custodian Adamu Abubakar said Nigeria has the capability to qualify as they can thrash Togo by the same margin in the return leg in Abuja.
“I believe we can still qualify because Libya beat us 2-0 and we came back to Nigeria to beat them despite everybody saying we can’t beat them,” he said.
“Sudan beat us 1-0 and we still beat them to qualify. I believe everything will be okay, no problem. We can win well more than 3 self and beat them.”
The Nigeria home-based Eagles, who reached the 2018 Chan final in Morocco, will now need to win the return leg next month at home by at least three clear goals to make it to Cameroon 2020.
In other championship qualifiers played on Sunday, Rwanda beat Ethiopia 1-0, Congo DR pulled a draw against hosts Central African Republic while Equatorial Guinea held Congo to a 2-2 draw.
Elsewhere, Cote d Ivoire lost 2-0 to Niger while Ghana lost by a lone goal to Burkina Faso.
The CHAN tournament is strictly for players plying their trade in their country’s domestic leagues.
