Nigeria lost 1-0 to Benin Republic on Sunday in the first-leg of the 2018 African Nations Championship at the Stade de Mathieu Kerekou, Cotonou.
Center Referee, Mustapha Ghorbal needed no second opinion after Midfielder, Hafiz Aremu hacked down a Benin Republic attacker inside the box.
Aremu dilly dallies with the ball in the box and loses it, committing a foul in a bid to win it back.
— Nigeria Super Eagles (@NGSuperEagles) August 13, 2017
The resultant penalty was converted by Mama Seibou, who gave the Squirrels an important lead with just a minute of regulation time left to play.
That victory hands Benin Republic an advantage going into the second-leg tie next week in Kano.
Nigeria, whose best performance at the CHAN was a bronze medal finish in 2014, have only qualified for two of the past four editions.
The CHAN Eagles lost to Ghana and Niger in 2009 and 2011 qualifying rounds respectively.
COMMENTS