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Yobo's Super Eagles are super-screwed

Joeseph Yobo's Nigeria will miss out on the African Nations Cup finals next year after a comical screw-up against Guinea — and demonstrated attack is not always the best form of defence!

Winning 2-1, which would have been enough to reach the finals, the Nigerian players wrongly believed they needed another goal and recklessly poured forward. Predictably Guinea equalised.

Afterwards Nigerian captain Joseph Yobo explained: ?We all went to attack because the officials told us we needed a third goal to ensure our qualification. That was our biggest undoing.?

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), however, has branded Yobo's statement ?desperate.?

?That was a desperate statement least expected from a player of Yobo's status,? said NFF chief media officer, Ademola Olajire . ?I think the players are simply unserious.

?During the days leading to the match day we informed the team that we need a win whether 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, etc to qualify.

?Then we have checked the other groups' standings, we discovered that the groups that will finish on 13 points are Nigeria and Ghana's group.

?We knew that at 13 points, it is either we top our group or we pick one of the two best loser's tickets.

?We made this information known to the team way back before they stepped onto the pitch.?

As a result of the draw, Sudan picked up the remaining slot and will play in the tournament finals in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Quotes or other material sourced from Liverpool Echo

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