The referee was a kill-joy against E’Guinea, says Okobi

Super Falcons midfielder, Ngozi Okobi, has blamed biased officiating for their 2-1 loss to Equatorial Guinea in Bata.

The Falcons’ dream of appearing at the women’s football event of Rio 2016 Olympic Games was dashed with the 3-2 aggregate loss to the Nzalang Nacional.

The African champions returned to Nigeria on Tuesday and the Washington Spirits forward said the referee killed their effort to come out of the clash unscathed.

“The referees were truly the kill-joy in the clash against Equatorial Guinea in Bata on Sunday,” she told supersport.com.

“We did not lose to the Equatorial Guineans but to the antics of the referees who for reasons best known to them made it absolutely difficult for us to play our own game with their bad calls.

“We actually gave the qualification clash the best fight but were undone by the referees biased officiating.

“It’s unfortunate we could still not qualify for the Rio Olympics after we sorely missed the 2012 London Olympics.

“Well, the deed cannot be undone. Right now we can only take solace in the forthcoming All Africa Games (AAG) in Congo Brazzaville next month.

“We can now focus our energy and preparations at winning gold in the women’s football event of the AAG perhaps as a make-up for our inability to qualify for the Olympics. ”

Equatorial Guinea will now face Banyana Banyana of South Africa in a two-legged clash to determine who claims the Olympic spot in Rio while Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire will battle for the second ticket.