Sudan Kicks Eagles Out Of 2015
AFCON Race.

Salifu Usman
Oct 12, 2014

Super Eagles chance of qualifying for the
2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in
Morocco appears over following a 1-0
shock defeat to Sudan in Khartoum
yesterday.
The defeat leaves African champions lie
bottom of their Group A with just one
point after three rounds of matches.
Stephen Keshi’s men are now in a
perilous situation that even if they win all
of their remaining three matches, they
may not qualify except table topper,
South Africa and second place Congo fail
to win two of their remaining three
matches respectively.
South Africa, earlier on, beat Congo 2-0
away in Pointe Noire to leap frog the
Congolese to top spot in the group A
with seven points, while Sudan also
leapfrogged Nigeria into third place with
their first win of the qualifying series.
Congo remains second with six points.
Mathematically, Super Eagles, who are
yet to win a match in the campaign
could still make it to the 2015 AFCON in
Morocco, if they win their remaining
three matches – at home to Sudan and
South Africa and away to Congo
respectively and hope that either South
Africa or Congo loss two of their
remaining three matches.
The signals were worrying from the onset
as Sudan quickly settled into the rhythm
on the artificial pitch at the sell-out
Khartoum Stadium, while Nigeria tried to
get going with the long ball.
The Eagles lacked ideas especially in the
final third and must be bitterly
disappointed that they hardly troubled a
well organised Sudan defence for most
of this encounter.
Ironically, the first main chance fell in the
11th minute to Nosa Igiebor, who fired
from outside the box but his shot
crashed against the base of the post to
the relief of the home team.
Yesterday’s game was Nigeria second
defeat to Sudan having lost once to
North African side, back then in 1969.
Nigeria has emerged victorious in six
games and has drawn four times. The
last time Sudan hosted Nigeria in 2001,
they were whacked 4-0 and the story
was more or less the same in their last
encounter as the Super Eagles emerged
2-0 winners in January 2010 in an
AFCON Group C match.