Nigeria will battle their West African brothers, Cameroon in the third place match at the ongoing 2022 African U21 Men’s Nation’s Volleyball Championship on Sunday.
Nigeria lost to Egypt 1-3 (33-35, 28-26, 17-25, 16-25) in the first semifinals match while Tunisia defeated Cameroon by three straight sets 25-21, 25-19, 25-19 in the second semifinals on Saturday.
Nigeria led the Egyptians in the early minutes of the first set 17-11 but suffered several setbacks during the game. Egypt leveled up with Nigeria at 23-23 and the game ended in favour of Egypt 35-33 points.
Nigeria came in strong in the second set and eventually won 28-26 points. Egypt won the third and fourth set by 25-17 and 25-16 points.
The head coach of Nigeria U21 team, Sani Mohammed said Nigeria deserves to win the match against the 5 times African, Egypt adding that he has accepted the result.
Mohammed said the next assignment for his side is to beat Cameroon at all cost in order to return home with a medal.
He said, “I am sure Nigerians watched the match against Egypt and you will agree with me that we gave our best. Nigeria deserved to win the match but it is unfortunate that we lost the game due to minor mistakes.
“Cameroon is a decent team and we face them on Sunday; we will not underrate them. The players are aware that we cannot afford to return home empty handed. The Federation has invested heavily in the team and the only way the team can show appreciation is by winning the bronze medal match”.
Mohammed promised not to let the Nigeria Volleyball Federation and well wishers down.
