Dream Team VI of Nigeria on Saturday won Group B of the All Africa Games after they forced Senegal to a 1-1 draw in a final group game.
They finished on four points from two matches and in the semi-finals they will now face the runners-up in Group A, who will be either Burkina Faso or Sudan, while Senegal face hosts Congo for a place in the gold medal match.
Nigeria will know their semi-final foes after Sunday’s games in Group A. Congo top the group with six points from two games, while Burkina Faso and Sudan, who clash on Sunday, have three points each.
Ghana Black Meteors were defending champions, but they have now been eliminated after they finished bottom of Group B with a point from two matches.
Nigeria gifted the Senegalese a goal in the 83rd minute, when Ibrahim Keita pounced on a misjudged header to open scoring.
Substitute Mustapha Abdullahi then fired a canon from inside 18-yard box in the concluding minutes of added time to secure a point for Samson Siasia’s team.
The first half was dull as both sides did not create many chances to score.
Senegal started second half with hard tackles and within first four minutes Nigeria won four free kicks.
In the 56th minute, Junior Ajayi’s header missed narrowly and six minutes later, Etebor Oghenekaro had a better best chance to score for Nigeria, but his weak shot was held by the goalkeeper.
Senegal then had Ibrahim Keita fail to score from six yards out.
“My boys made me proud, I love their fighting spirit to concede a goal that late and come back to equalise is a sign that the boys have a strong mentality. I must also commend Mustapha who was able to calm his nerves to score the equaliser.
“For now let’s just go and savour our qualification for the semifinals as this draw has made us to avoid the hosts, Congo who would have been tough to play. I would prefer playing them (Congo Brazzaville) in the final,” said the former Super Eagles manager.
Siasia assured his side will not make Nigerians sad in the next stage of the championship.
The team’s spokesman, Timi Ebikagboro, said after the match that the one point from the match was a good result, but is looking forward to improvements ahead of the semi-final.
“We have topped the group and we would have taken that before we began the preliminaries. I will not say it was a bad result but hopefully there will be improvements in our play especially goal-scoring by the time we play our next game,” he said.
Nigeria will now play the runner-up of Group B in the semis on September 15.
