Ivoirians ‘begged me’ to miss spot kick, says F/Eagles captain

Flying Eagles captain, Musa Muhammed, has disclosed that some Junior Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire begged him to miss the second-half penalty awarded to Nigeria in Saturday’s African Youth Championship Group A match.

The Ivoirians were leading 2-1 before left-back Mustapha Abdullahi was hacked down in the box.

Muhammed stepped up to convert the resultant spot kick for his third goal of the tournament but not before he was begged to miss the kick.

“The players including the goalkeeper begged me to miss the penalty, saying we are all champions and we should play for each other,” Muhammed said.

“But I remained focused and professional to score the penalty and earn us a draw, which was a sweet revenge for the two losses we suffered at the hands of the Ivorian U-17 team two years ago in Morocco. Most of the players from that tournament were also here in Senegal.

“In Morocco, we were against both Cote d’Ivoire and the referee. They kicked us so much that at a time (Isaac) Success wanted to be replaced.”

Nigeria will face Group B runners-up – which could either be Mali or Ghana – for Wednesday’s semi-final in Dakar.

“I have seen here in Senegal at least six players from the Mali U-17 team we played against two years ago in a qualifying match for the 2013 CAF U-17 Championship,” he said.

“They are very big and powerful players but we will be ready for them on Wednesday.”

But his coach, Manu Garba, expects Ghana to fight for a result against Mali on Sunday so as to avoid his team in the semi-final of the AYC.

Ghana are top of the group and need only a point to qualify and Manu knows they will do everything to avoid playing Nigeria.

“I want to believe both Ghana and Mali will play so as to avoid us in the semi-final on Wednesday,” he said.

“If I were their coaches, I would do the same thing too.”

Last month the Flying Eagles played two friendly games with the Black Satellites. They won the first one 2-0 in Tema and were forced to a 2-2 draw in Accra in the second game.