Junior Elephants of Côte d'Ivoire coach Saraka Norbert has sensationally proclaimed that his country is presently jinxed against Nigeria, a spell he believes was responsible for their elimination by the Home Super Eagles from the Championship of African Nations(CHAN) 2014.
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Cote d'Ivoire won the second leg, final round of their CHAN 2014 qualifier 2-0 against Nigeria on Saturday, but emerged losers on 4-3 aggregate , the Super Eagles having secured an emphatic 4-1 win from the first leg played in Kaduna.
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Still rueing his team's elimination from CHAN 2014 which will be staged in South Africa, Saraka Norbert likens the Super Eagles' domination of the Elephants in recent major competitions to an Indian Sign advantage.
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Apparently referring to recent defeats conceded to Nigeria, including the famous upset at AFCON 2013 and the 4-1 thumping in Kaduna, Saraka recognizes that Nigeria is getting to a status of black beast of the Ivory Coast.
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" Nigeria Is now like an Indian Sign against Cote d' Ivoire," stressed-out Nobert tells Ivoiran newspaper, Fratermite Matin. " We will have to work hard to defeat them when we meet in future games."
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By Indian Sign, Nobert refers to Nigeria's seeming margical powers with which Stephen Keshi's team demystified Cote d'Ivoire in recent encounters, and denying the Elephants progression in major competitions.
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The Junior Elephants coach regrets meeting and losing to Nigeria in the CHAN 2014 qualifiers stage.
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He insists a high profile fixure as Nigeria vs Côte d'Ivoire is only ideal for CHAN 2014 final.
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"My regret is that the teams that were paired at this qualifying stage: Ivory Coast Vs Nigeria, could have been a final of the CHAN 2014. Now Ivory Coast will not participate in this competition and that is a shame," moans the Ivorian technician.
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The coach further remarks of his team's failed bid to overturn the 4-1 first leg scoreline in Abidjan: "We missed an achievement. With 3-0 win, we would have achieved our mission. Unfortunately, we couldn't score the third goal, which would have taken us to South Africa," Norbert concludes.
Super Eagles games are always free and fair so all this jinx stories are fake. People should learn to accept DEFEAT...
Our coaches in Africa should try as much as possible to accept loses as they come and not blame it on other silly things.
Ivory Coast should just accept that we're better than them in football. They've become so proud that whenever we beat them they feel they were cheated.