TheCable

The Nigeria U-23 team has qualified for the final of the CAF U-23 tournament after beating host Senegal 1-0 at the Leopold Sedar Senghor Stadium, Dakar.

The result also earned the Dream Team VI a ticket to the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Emmanuel Daniel, Nigeria’s goalkeeper, conceded a penalty for a foul on Cheickou Dieng in the 45th minute but he then saved Ibrahima Sory Keita’s spot kick.

Peter Etebor, who captained the team, converted a penalty in the 75th minute to win the match after Senegal’s Ousseynou Thioune, who was sent off, handled the ball as he collided with his goalkeeper, Pape Ndiaye.

Reduced to 10 men, Senegal pushed for the equaliser to possibly take the game to penalties but couldn’t break down Nigeria’s defence.

In his post-match comments, Samson Siasia, coach of the Nigerian side, expressed happiness at repeating his feat against Senegal after 1992 Nation’s cup triumph.

“I’m very happy to win against Senegal again after the Africa Cup of Nations in 1992 and achieving our objective, which was to qualify for the Olympics. I think the ‘gods of football’ were with my team today because Senegal created most of the chances but they failed to score,” he said.

“Emmanuel Daniel (Goalkeeper) kept us in the match as he made some brilliant saves today. On another day, we could’ve been embarrassed.

“We did the best we could because we had lots of injuries heading into this match but I hope that Senegal can qualify to Rio so as to have a strong African representation in Brazil. Creating chances and scoring them are different so I’m not concern that we allowed Senegal to have the best chances of the match.”

Nigeria will be joined in the final match by either Algeria or South Africa on Saturday.

Senegal, who qualified from group A, with nine points, will now play either of the teams, in a third-place match, with the winner also earning a place in Brazil.

Algeria takes on South Africa in the second semi-final later on Wednesday.