An elated Super Eagles coach Austin Eguavoen could not hide his happiness at Nigeria's topping of Group D into the quarterfinals of the 25th Africa Nations Cup (CAN) tournament by virtue of a 2-1 victory over Senegal here Tuesday.
"We were lucky. We could have been two (goals) down, but we came back. It was very dramatic for us," the coach said, of the Nigeria-Senegal match, adding in a post-match chat: "Any of the teams could have advanced from this group, but first place is very important for us."
The brace by Inter Milan striker Obafemi Martins gave Super Eagles the nine maximum points and the top spot leaving Senegal, Ghana and Zimbabwe, each with three points to settle the mathematics for the other quarterfinal berth.
In the end, Senegal joined Nigeria to advance to the quarterfinals from the so-called "group of death."
Even in defeat, the Teranga Lions' coach Abdoulaye Sarr said: "I thank God for qualifying."
"We came to qualify and we did. We played with quality for greater part of the game and to be precise almost 80 minutes then fell apart in the last 10 minutes which gave Nigeria the match, but I'm still happy that we qualified at the end of the day," he said in the post-match press conference.
In the quarterfinal pairings, Nigeria will battle defending African champions Tunisia, while Senegal will take on giant killers Guinea.