CHAN 2020: Bonfrere faults Amapakabo tactics against Togo
Former Super Eagles coach Johannes Bonfrere has slammed the tactics deployed by the U-23 head coach Imama Amapakabo against Togo during Saturday’s 2020 African Nations Cup Championship (CHAN) second leg qualifier encounter at the Agege Stadium, Lagos.
Nigeria needed three unreplied goals to secure qualification for the championship mainly for the local players billed for Cameroon next year, having lost the first leg encounter in Lome by 4-1.
The CHAN Eagles could only secure a score 2-0 win in the second leg but the two goals from the Sunshine Stars striker Sikiru Alimi was not enough to take them to the tournament. With their inability to overturn the deficit, the 2018 finalists crashed out 4-3 on aggregate.
Speaking after the game, Bonfrere who led the U-23 Eagles ‘The Dream Team’ to win Africa’s first gold medal in the football event at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic, said the Eagles’ insistent of playing long balls to the opponents’ area throughout the game was responsible for their elimination.
The Dutch tactician insisted that Super Eagles B were more dangerous from the wing play than playing high ball from the defence to the opponent area.
“I see Nigeria playing many long balls to the opponents 18 year box and it was not easy for them because Togo was playing with about six or seven defenders. Nigeria striker was removed from the game because he could not get the ball on his foot. But if they have kept him in the middle of the game he could have done something with his body.
“The second point is that if Nigeria had used the wings more and gave passes to the striker, they could have been much more dangerous. Nigeria playing long ball from the defence line was the mistakes they made,” Bonfere said.
It is the first time the Eagles have failed to qualify for the CHAN since 2014, and the third time in the competition’s history that Nigeria will not participate. The team previously missed out of the first ever edition in 2009 and fell short in 2011 as well.
Nigeria finished second in the last edition in Morocco losing 4-0 at the Complexe Mohamed V in Casablanca to the hosts.
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Nigeria has featured at the championship reserved exclusively for home based players in the continent three times, finishing third place in her debut edition in 2014 in South Africa, crashing out in the Group stage at the 2016 edition in Rwanda and finishing runners up in the 2018 edition in Morocco.