Forget Senegal 2016 ticket, Le Roy tells Nigeria

Jubilant Congo coach, Claude Leroy said he hope that his wards can end the
Nigeria’s dream for a place at the eight team tournament later in the year in
Senegal going by the latter’s 2-1 in Port-Harcourt on Sunday.
“We never contemplated about beating the Nigerian team at home because we are
still dreaming to be like Dream Team of Nigeria. On Sunday we lost 2-1 but it was
the Nigerian team that created a lot of chances. They were better but 2-1 loss is
not too bad for my players,” said the veteran Frenchman.

For the Frenchman, the slim loss was only an assurance that the job was half
done for his side and believed that victory at home was assured.
For his Nigerian counterpart, Samson Siasia, there were reasons to be optimistic
since his charges had shown overtime that they are good travelers, following recent
victories away when they dispatched off Gabon (4-1) and Zambia (2-0) in Libreville
and Lusaka respectively to seal qualification for the African Games Brazzaville
2015.
“We got carried away (after scoring two goals) instead of concentrating on the
match. These are the areas we are going to look at (before the second leg). This
team is still young. We have a lot of things to put in place. There is a lot of work
to do before the second leg in Congo but I’m comfortable with the score line
today,” Siasia observed.
Nigeria managed a 2-1 win over Congo on Sunday in front of a partisan capacity
crowd in Port Harcourt in their third round first leg clash of the African U-23
Championship Senegal 2015 qualifiers.
The encounter could have ended in a convincing win for the hosts after
overwhelming the Red Devils in the first half, but the curtain raiser only came on 48
minutes through Junior Ajayi after Congo goalkeeper, Christoffer Mafoumbi failed to
hold on to an acute-angled shot by Godwin Saviour.
Ajayi doubled the lead six minutes later, when he powered home with a brilliant
header off a cross from Daniel Etor.
However, Moise Nkonkou’s goal in the 66th minute when he rammed home a
rebound from Nigeria’s goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel meant there is still very much
to play for in the second leg in Pointe Noire in a fortnight.
The second legs will take place in a fortnight with winners qualifying for the final
tournament of the African U-23 Championship scheduled for 28 November to 12
December in Senegal, where the top three teams will represent Africa at the 2016
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and the fourth placed team facing an Asian side
in a playoff.