CHAN 2020: Home Based Eagles Face Herculean Task Against Togo

By Akinwale Kasali

The Home Based Super Eagles hope of qualifying for the 2020 Total African Nations Championship, CHAN, to be staged in Cameroon, hangs in the balance.

The Imama-Amakapabo coached, Home Based Eagles lost to the Sparrow Hawks of Togo 4-1 in Lome, Capital of Togo in the first leg of the qualification series.

Amakapabo lads needs to win the Togolese with a three goal margin, with its opponent not scoring more than a goal when the Togolese comes visiting for the return leg in two weeks time.

The home based Eagles opened scoring through Ibrahim Sunusi in the 14th minute of the match at the Lome Stade La Kegue arena, before the host equalised ten minutes later.

The half ended in a draw, before the Togolese came out smoking in the second half, scoring three goals in the final 30 minutes of the encounter to give the Super Eagles  an uphill task and a mountain to climb to the reverse situation.

Nane, who was a thorn in the flesh of the Nigeria defence, completed his brace in the 67th  minute before further goals from Tchakei Marouf in the 75th minute and, Ashraf Agoro in stoppage time saw the Hawks secure a healthy lead going into the second leg.

However, the Sparrow Hawks clawed their way back as Richard Nane pulled the home team level in the 16th minute and with three more goals in the second half, the Nigerian  team are left with all the work to do in their quest to make it to Chan 2020.

If the Super Eagles fail to qualify for the championship in Ethiopia, it will be first time Nigeria has failed to attend the biennial showpiece for players playing in their home leagues.

Amakapabo and his team face a precarious situation as they go into the second leg of the encounter. Since the CHAN tournament started in 2014, Nigeria has never failed to qualify for the tournament.

In 2014, South Africa hosted the maiden edition of the tournament.Nigeria came third.

In 2016, when Rwanda hosted the competition, Nigeria failef to scale through the group stage.

At the same Championship in Morocco in 2018, Nigeria finished runner-ups against eventual winner and host, Morocco.