PHOTO: Philippe DESMAZES / AFP
Super Eagles’ Stand-In Captain, Ahmed Musa says he has forgiven Gambian referee, Bakary Gassama after his errors cost Nigeria two goals, and a win in last Saturday’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying clash against the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, reports Completesportsnigeria.com.
Gassama and his assistants chalked off two Nigerian goals for offside but replays showed otherwise.
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In the first half of the encounter, Musa thought to have assisted a Kelechi Iheanacho goal but saw it flagged for offside, while the Al Nasr man, with few minutes left in the tie, ran onto Alex Iwobi’s incisive pass to score what would have been the winner in a 1-1 game, but again was met by Gambian official’s disapproval.
After the clash at the FNB Stadium Johannesburg, the Super Eagles skipper took to the social media to question the calls, also poking at CAF.
The referee, however, apologised to Musa and Nigeria for the mistakes and the forward has waved off the incidents, stressing that their qualification for AFCON has made up for the unpopular decisions.
“I will say that it was good that he realized his mistakes and apologized for his action and it is past tense for me,” Musa told reporters in Asaba shortly before the Super Eagles’ friendly encounter against the Cranes of Uganda.
“The major thing is that we have qualified for Afcon for the first time since 2013 and we are delighted about that. I don’t see any big deal about that because our emphasis was on playing at the Africa Cup of Nations and now that we have qualified, we are relieved.
“I am not worried that I was not able to score because we didn’t lose and we have got our heart desires with the ticket to Cameroon. We know that it is time now for serious preparations and that is what we are after now.”
Source: G Sport
