Holders Nigeria dumped by Sudan; Egypt, South Africa through

Nigeria became the next in line on the casualty table of the qualifiers for the U-20 AFCON Zambia 2017 after Sudan shockingly beat them 4-3 in Lagos on Saturday, and confirm their place for next year’s tournament.

With the aggregate scores tied at 5-5 over the two legs, the continental record champions with seven titles under their belt thus failed to progress via away goals despite managing a 2-1 away win in Omdurman a fortnight ago.

In a repeat of what happened in the race towards the 1997 edition, Sudan qualified ahead of Nigeria yet again on the away goals rule as for the Flying Eagles failed to qualify for the biennial championship for the first time since 2005.

“We are all disappointed and the truth of the matter is that we are not able to qualify to Zambia and everybody is disappointed,” a crest-fallen Nigeria trainer Emmanuel Amuneke said in the post-match interview.

“The players are disappointed and Nigerians are disappointed; and I’m personally disappointed. A lot of Nigerians came to support us but unfortunately we are not in the position to make them happy. We are all sad but life has to move on; this is football,” added Amuneke.

Striker Khaled Abdulmonen Osman was hero for the Sudanese netting a hat-trick, which fuelled their bid for victory despite finishing the game with ten men after Walaa Eldin Musa was sent off …

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