Nigeria play Libya in the quarter-finals of the ongoing 2022 African U-21 Men’s Nations Volleyball Championship in Tunisia on Friday (today), despite losing to the hosts in their final group game on Wednesday.
Having gotten the better of Morocco and Gambia in their first two games of the tournament, coach Sani Mohammed’s side suffered their first defeat to hosts Tunisia, who beat Nigeria 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-23) in front of their home fans, winning 32 points from service and 43 points from receives, while Nigeria managed 20 points from service and 42 points from receives.
Tunisia had four aces, nine maximum points in a row, 10 service errors and used two timeouts, while Nigeria had one ace, four maximum points in a row, nine service errors and used five timeouts.
The result means Nigeria finished second in their group, two points behind Tunisia.
Mohammed said the technical crew had worked on the players mistakes against the Tunisians and is hoping to steer the side to the competition’s semis.
“The coaching crew has studied the match against Tunisia and all the lapses noticed will be worked on. If you look critically at the minor scores, Nigeria were leading before Tunisia came from behind to win the first and third set,” Mohammed said.
“Our match against Libya will be taken with a high level of seriousness because we do not want to let the nation down.
“The loss to Tunisia is a wake-up call. We cannot afford to make mistakes in the quarter-finals because it means we are out of the title race. Nigeria played against the crowd, they came out to support their team and Tunisia won.”
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