Niger coach Badou Zaki - Photo Courtesy CAFOnline.
Head coach of Niger, Badou Zaki has attributed long road travels to their inability to have a smooth 2025 AFCON qualifiers.
The North East African nation played their home games away - shuttling between the Berkane Stadium in Morocco against Ghana and the Stade de Kegué in Togo against Sudan in the penultimate match.
Niger, despite the rough and tough journey in the qualifiers, managed to claw six points in their last two games - walloping Sudan by 4-0 before nailing Ghana 2-1 in Accra in the last game.
Badou Zaki said: “When we played against, Ghana, Sudan and Angola, we had a very hard traveling and our players most of them are amateurs who play in Niger and also the professionals who played outside had long travels.
“We traveled one hour to Togo and one hour from alone to Accra and that is why I said if we had a plane which will carry us like Morocco, like Angola, like other countries, then my players can recover from match to match.”
Their last two impressive outings were, however, not enough to qualify them for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations to be staged in Morocco.
Niger finished third in group F on seven points, one less than second placed Sudan who drew goalless at Angola and seven adrift of leaders, Angola. Ghana disgracefully finished bottom of the standings with three points.
Commentaires