Niger : 2- 0 : Guinea
Hosts Niger rode on a late rally to sensationally upstage Guinea and qualify for their second successive Africa Cup of Nations finals when they beat their fellow West Africans 2-0 in Niamey on Sunday.
The Mena of Niger thus pulled through on a 2-1 aggregate after Guinea won the first clash 1-0 at home last month.
The youthful Syli National were expected to struggle under very hostile conditions in Niger, but they held out till the closing moments of the match before they went behind through a 74th minute goal scored by Mohamed Chikoto.
This tie appeared to be heading for a penalty shootout before the home team conjured another late strike by Issoufou Boubacar Garba five minutes from full time to ensure they return to Africa’s biggest football event.
Niger made their debut appearance earlier this year in Gabon even though they failed to go past the first round group stages that featured co-hosts Gabon, Tunisia and Morocco.
Ivorian coach Francois Zahoui will take a part of the credit for causing a major upset with the Mena after he failed to win the last tournament with a star-studded Elephants of Ivory Coast.
Last year, Guinea also upstaged mighty Nigeria to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
However, they failed to fulfil the huge promise they showed in the qualifying tournament as they failed to go past the first round from a section that also had Guinea and next-door neighbours Mali.
French coach Michel Dussuyer, who has stayed on as coach, will now have to shift attention to the qualifying tournament for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
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