{"id":21836,"date":"2015-12-13T00:57:44","date_gmt":"2015-12-13T00:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/nigeria-crowned-u23s-champions-as-south-africa\/"},"modified":"2015-12-13T00:57:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T00:57:34","slug":"nigeria-crowned-u23s-champions-as-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/nigeria-crowned-u23s-champions-as-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria crowned U23s champions as South Africa take final Rio spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

{ Nigeria beat Algeria 2-1 in Dakar to win the Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations as South Africa took the remaining Olympic spot with a 3-1 penalties win over hosts Senegal in the third place play-off match.}<\/p>\n

Goalkeeper Jody February proved to be South Africa’s hero with three saves during the shootout and a penalty save in the regulation 90 minutes which had ended 0-0.<\/p>\n

Phakamani Mahlambi hit the winning spot-kick to send South Africa’s men to the Rio Games.<\/p>\n

It is the first time that both the South Africa men’s and women’s football teams have qualified for an Olympics.<\/p>\n

In a rare instance of a third-place play-off match carrying more importance than the final itself, it was the hosts Senegal who had the best chance in the game to seal victory when they were awarded a penalty in the 73rd minute.<\/p>\n

Moussa Wague’s effort was saved by the outstanding February who then played a starring role in the ensuing shootout, saving three spot-kicks .<\/p>\n

South Africa’s men join the newly crowned Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations champions Nigeria and runners-up Algeria, at Rio 2016.<\/p>\n

Nigeria took the lead in the final against Algeria thanks to a 14th minute penalty from captain Peter Etebo.<\/p>\n

Just 16 minutes later, Algeria were level when Oduduwa Segun Tope scored an own-goal.<\/p>\n

In a frenetic first half, Nigeria took what proved to be a decisive lead, as Etebo again struck – this time in open play – to put Nigeria 2-1 up.<\/p>\n

Algeria missed a key opportunity to draw level in the second half.<\/p>\n

USM Alger’s Zinedine Ferhat had a penalty saved by Nigeria goalkeeper Daniel Emmanuel in the 68th minute.<\/p>\n

Nigeria held on to win 2-1 to lift the trophy and take their place in Rio as African champions.<\/p>\n

Nigeria boast a proud Olympics record. They made Olympic football history in 1996 by becoming the first African and non-European and South American team to win the gold medal.<\/p>\n

They also finished runners-up at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where current under-23 coach Siasia also coached the ‘Dream Team’ in China.<\/p>\n

However, the so-called ‘Dream Team V’ led by Austin Eguavoen failed to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics after crashing out in the group stages of the 2011 U-23 championship in Morocco. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

SOURCE:BBC:[Nigeria crowned U23s champions as South Africa take final Rio spot->http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/0\/football\/35084168]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ Nigeria beat Algeria 2-1 in Dakar to win the Under 23 Africa Cup of Nations as South Africa took the remaining Olympic spot with a 3-1 penalties win over hosts Senegal in the third place play-off match.} Goalkeeper Jody February proved to be South Africa’s hero with three saves during the shootout and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-21836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070821,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21836.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21836.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21836.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21836.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21836.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton21836.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21836"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=21836"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=21836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}