Super Eagles manager, Sunday Oliseh as well as Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Pinnick have apologised to Nigerians over the Super Eagles’ exit from the African Nations Championship. 

Nigeria lost  1-0 to Guinea in yesterday’s last group C match and subsequently crashed out of the tournament. They garnered four points from their two previous matches and only needed a draw against Guinea to advance to the quarter-final.

“We apologise to Nigerians for this loss, we never planned to exit the tournament this early. The boys gave their best,” Oliseh said after the game. 

Pinnick added, “We apologise to Nigerians for the poor outing of the Super Eagles in Rwanda, but we toe the line of CAF which states that CHAN is a developmental and preparatory competition. Of course, as Nigerians, we love to win always, and we feel bad when we don’t.

“I want us to take the positives from this tournament. A player like Chisom Chikatara broke onto the global platform and players like Usman Mohammed,  Chima Akas, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Austin Oboroakpo and Ifeanyi Mathew confirmed their class.

“For me, it is disappointing that we did not progress. But the NFF will now focus on the 2017 AFCON qualifiers, and start preparations early for the remaining rounds.”