Nigeria’s Dream Team VI found themselves in a tight corner qualifying for the knockout stage of the U-23 Africa Cup of Nation, as Samson Siasia’s boys were held to a 2-2 draw by Egypt Wednesday night in M’Bour in Senegal.
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But at the end, it became a game of two halves with Nigeria scoring two goals in the first half and surrendered their lead for the Egyptians to score two in the second half.
Egypt’s final match in the group is on Saturday against Mali.
The Pharaohs conceded again from another penalty after half an hour when a Nigerian pass deflected off a defender and looped to the failing arm of full-back Mohamed Hani.
The first soft penalty was awarded on 19 minutes when Cameroonian referee Antoine Essouma adjudged Egypt’s defensive midfielder Rami Rabia to have handled a cross but television replays showed that the ball had struck his knee.
Nigeria had desperately hoped to avoid leaving their qualification to the next round to calculations but the most secured path to the next round is a win against Algeria – perchance Egypt defeat Mali.
On resumption for the second half, the Egyptians looked charged and launched several attacking forays into the Nigeria’s vital area.
Algeria are top of the group with four points and a better goals difference than Nigeria.
Nigeria went into the second match of their group knowing a win would be enough to go through to the last four.
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Mali and Zambia have been eliminated.
