Niger football boss Colonel Major Djibrilla Hima Hamidou says they aren’t throwing in the towel even after suffering elimination in the ongoing Africa U-20 champion as hosts.
Niger’s Mena finished unprepossessingly third in group A as Senegal and South Africa sealed semi-final tickets.
Asked about what he makes of the hosts bowing out, Hamidou showed positivity despite the poor results.
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] “What we feared was unfortunately what happened with the premature elimination of our national team. But we have to manage the situation since we’re here to build a team for the future. We’re not going to stop working because of the elimination of Mena.” [/perfectpullquote]
“There are many other competitions in future and we hope that these young players will improve to make the senior national and be successful,” he said.
Explaining what may have caused Mena’s exit, Hima blamed pressure to deliver amid growing expectations from fans.
“It is often said that defeat is an orphan since nobody would want to assume such responsibility. For me, it’s a global responsibility.”
“We can agree that the players were under a lot of pressure because playing at home in a full stadium and Nigerians demanding for results. We did not really recognize the team compared to when it was doing good during the preparation phases and gave us a lot of hope. We missed the chance in the first match (against South Africa) because they could have been free if the team had taken all three points,” he told CafOnline.com.
Nigeria faces Mali U-20s at 3 pm local time today while Senegal battle it out with South Africa later in the evening.
