Nigeria’s Super Eagles fail again to qualify for 2022 CHAN

Ghana on Saturday defeated Nigeria’s home-based national men’s football team in a penalty shootout thereby edging the country out of the 2022 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN).

The edition of the tournament which will be held in Algeria between 8 and 31 January 2023 will not have Nigeria in attendance.

The Eagles, led by Coach Salisu Yusuf, had fallen to a 2-0 defeat to the Black Galaxies of Ghana in the first leg of the qualifiers and hoped for a comeback in Abuja.

In the second leg in Abuja on Saturday saw Nigeria put up a dramatic fightback to draw 2-2 on aggregate at full time, but went on to lose on penalties.

Nigeria’s goals were scored by Zulkifilu Muhammed and Chijioke Akuneto in the second half.

As the game went into shootouts, the Black Galaxies took the game 5-4 on penalties to earn their first qualification for CHAN since the 2014 edition in South Africa.

Nigeria have now missed back-to-back editions of CHAN, having failed to qualify for the 2020 edition after losing to Togo in the qualifiers.