SOUTH Africa based Super Eagles second keeper, Dan Akpeyi, believes himself and his team mates did enough to land in Gabon for the AFCON 2017 soccer tournament.
Akpeyi who manned the post in the battle of Alexandria after first choice keeper Carl Ikeme pulled out of the return leg in the back to back clash against Egypt told Saturday SunSports exclusively in Alexandria that the Eagles were simply unlucky.
“It is painful we are not going to be in Gabon next year for the Nations Cup. Painful because we deserved to be there, given the efforts we put in collectively as a team. We lost the ticket basically because we were a bit unlucky.
We should have won the home game against Egypt in Kaduna, somehow we didn’t. In Alexandria, we also didn’t deserve to lose, but the Egyptians still carried the day. In football, sometimes, the luck factor comes in,” Akpeyi said.
The Chippa FC shot stopper said he ordinarily would have stopped the only goal that got past him in Alexandria but regretted not seeing the ball in good time, no thanks to the sea of legs in the vital area when the Egyptian attacker, took the kick.
“I didn’t see the ball in time because there were many players in front of me when the shot was taken from close ranger. The ball went in before I could react.”
Akpeyi, it would be noted made some brilliant saves in the Alexandria game, especially in the first half, but failed to stop the 65th minute effort of Radwan Sobbi.
The former Heartland of Owerri goalkeeper urged Nigerians to forget the AFCON setback and focus on the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers.
“Our focus now should be the World Cup. We need to put our acts together and ensure we qualify for the World Cup. That is the biggest stage in football and we pray we qualify. We just have to put everything into the World Cup qualifiers and ensure we pick up one of the tickets.”
Akpeyi who moved over to Chippa just last season said he is enjoying his stay in South Africa.
“ I m happy in South Africa.
It’s a lot better than playing at home. I will keep working hard and pray for new and better offers. But right now, I m happy in my club,” he said.
Meanwhile, Super Eagles goalkeepers trainer, Aloy Agu said he was impressed with the performance of Akpeyi in the Alexandria game.
Agu noted that the goal scored by the Pharaohs was not out of goalkeeping error.
“Yes, we conceded, but you can see that it was not out of goalkeeping error. Akpeyi stood in well for Ikeme. He was confident and did what he was supposed to do. I knew he was going to do well. We don’t have goalkeeping problem in the team. The three goalkeepers we have, Ikeme, Akpeyi and Ikechukwu Ezenwa are all good and can acquit themselves creditably anytime, any day,” Agu said.
Agu just like Akpeyi blamed the luck factor for Nigeria’s failure to land in Gabon, insisting that the Eagles played well in the back to back games against Egypt.
“We deserved sometime better than the results we got home and away,” Agu said.
