Super Eagles of Nigeria secured their qualification ticket for Next year Africa Cup of Nations after a stalemate encounter against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa on Saturday's afternoon at FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.
The much anticipated match which has many undertones for both sides was marred by questionable calls by the ref in either side of the halves but Eagles' ensured they reclaim their berth in the newly expanded format of the biannual Continental football tournament with a game to spare in the qualifying series, after missing out on two consecutive editions.
The match started on a brighter note for the 3 times African champions as Bordeaux outfit striker Samuel Kalu forced the onrushing Bafana Bafana's defender Buhle Mkhwanazi to an own goal inside the opening 10minutes of the match.
In the absence of the regular starters, Odion Ighalo, Wilfred Ndidi and Francis Uzoho, coach Gernot Rohr adopted 3-5-2 formation allowing Jamilu Collins to initiate and support the attack while Alex Iwobi anchoring the midfield.
Nigeria should have been 2-nill up though had it not been a wrong offside call by the centre referee moments before the own goal.
South Africa grow stronger as the game wore on in a scorchy weather temperature and got their deserved equaliser after a superb interchange of passes by their attackers. Etebo's timeless clearance in the midfield ensured the ball flicked to the path of enterprising pacy Percy Tau whose sublime skill and body-swaving tore apart Super Eagles defence and lay the ball to Lebo Mothiba for a simple tap-in to the net to put the game at 1-1.
The 2nd half was somewhat topsy-turvy affairs as both sides were unable to create a clear cut chance. In the 84mins Ahmed Musa connected with a through-ball from Alex Iwobi and calmly put it pass the South African goalkeeper but the centre referee adjudged the goal offside when the replay clearly indicates neither Musa nor Isacc Promise was in offside position.
Eagles held on with the parity and clinch their ticket on the soil where they last played and won the tournament 5 years ago.
In the other Group E match, Seychelles was completely pummeled by the Mediterranean Knight of Libya as they suffer 8-1 loss. The result ensures the second available ticket in the group will go down the wire as both South Africa and Libya will slog it out on the final day of the qualifiers. Nigeria are with 10 point and enjoy a better head-to-head advantage over Libya which means they are safe, South Africa has 9 points and Libya with 7 points. A point in their last match will secure the ticket for South Africa while a win for the war ravaged Libeya, who are playing their home matches in Tunisia, will see them beat South Africa to the ticket.
Congratulations Nigeria!
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