By Victor Kanayo
Year 2022 will go down in history as one that Nigeria failed to qualify for two major competitions with Ghana posing as stumbling blocks.
In March, Ghana’s senior men national team ensured that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation didn’t qualify for next World Cup scheduled for Qatar between November and December this year.
Again, on Saturday, September 3, 2022 inside the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, the same Ghanaians stopped Nigerians from qualifying for 2023 Championship of African Nations (CHAN). It was the same stadium where the Super Eagles failed in their World Cup bid.
Talking about how Nigeria lost the CHAN ticket to feature at the tournament slated for Algeria, the Black Galaxies of Ghana, being the home-based version of Black stars, pulled through via penalty kicks.
This was after Nigeria came back from a two goal deficit in the first leg and netted two in the second leg encounter.
In Abuja, the Super Eagles B put up a resilient show at the Moshood Abiola Stadium with goals from Zulkifilu Mohammed in the 76th minute and Chijioke Akuneto in the 94th minute, sending the game into penalty shootout where Ghana edged Nigeria 5-4.
Ghana will be making a return to CHAN after missing out on the last three editions.
With the latest defeat, Nigeria has missed two consecutive CHAN editions under the current leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
