Senegal 0:1 Nigeria And Nigeria makes it to the final (and Rio) after holding on to a late goal scored by Oghenekaro.
Algeria 2:0 South Africa Algeria dominated till they got a 2nd goal then sit back and held on to their lead. They join Nigeria in the final (and to Rio as well). South Africa will have to face-off against Senegal for the last spot. Algeria/Nigeria final on Saturday. Hopefully it'll be a better game than last time around.
0-0 between Senegal & South Africa after full regulation time. Seems like there's no ET, straight to PSO. Please note Senegal had a PK but missed during the game.
Senegal 0 : 0 (1-3 PSO) South Africa Good keeper for South Africa saving 3 out of the 4 attemps from Senegal. The latter's goalie saved 2 shots but couldn't stop the Bafana from booking their trip to Rio. Senegal looked like a "sure bet" after the group stages but are the ones missing out. They dominated the game but couldn't score unfortunately.
Shocked by Senegal. Overall they dominated the competition and all opponents yet somehow fail to score two penalties in two games, are unable to finish off a single chance in 180 minutes... They were the only team that really stood out, so I must say I'm surprised...
Anybody watched the Senegal game? Wanted to ask who stood out for them... And good luck to these 3 teams at the Olympics.
A few things on Nigeria: 1. AGE CHEATING The young guys are bona fide young guys, most of them with well recorded youth careers. Age cheating with a majority of these players is a non-issue. 2. SQUAD This set of young guns is the strongest I can remember. They are definitely stronger than the silver-winning side of 2008. Right now Nigeria has the following set of players with proper first team experience in a top 5 league or in Champions League football: Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City) Alex Iwobi (Arsenal) Isaac Success (Granada) Moses Simon (Gent) Chidozie Awaziem (FC Porto) Umar Sadiq (AS Roma) Apart from that they have: Kelechi Nwakali (U17 MVP 2015, Arsenal), Victor Osimhen (U17 Golden Boot 2015, Wolfsburg), Anderson Esiti (first team @ Praia, Portugal), Shehu Abdullahi (first team @ Madeira, Portugal), Wilfried Ndidi (first team @ Genk, Belgium), Aaron Samuel (first team @ CSKA Moscow), Abdullahi Nura (AS Roma youth team), Kenneth Omeruo (World Cup experience, first team @ Kasimpasa, Turkey), Taiwo Awoniyi (Liverpool, on loan) All in all however a team very much high on talent (upper echelon at the competition), but not necessarily high on experience given most of the above players has one season of top tier football and most are 18-20 years old. 3. OVERAGE PLAYERS That said the over-23 players are hardly inspiring. There is talk of the three over-23 being Obi Mikel, Odion Ighalo, Ahmed Musa. Truth be told with such three players I would actually prefer Nigeria to just take only U23 players. Just compare the Nigerian over-23 players with what Colombia can call up (James just to start off things).
South Africa to take: Itumeleng Khune, Andile Jali and Erick Mathoho have been earmarked to be included in the South African Rio Olympics squad. Good choices IMHO. I for one can never get enough of Khune... http://africanfootball.com/news/632046/REPORT-Khune-Mathoho-Jali-for-SA-Rio-Olympics-squad