by Staff Reporter

Zambia U23 coach Fighton Simukonda has maintained his team were not a poor match to Nigeria in an All Africa Games qualifier, but they lost because they failed to put away their chances.On Sunday, Nigeria ran away 2-1 winners in Lusaka to qualify for the 2015 AAG in Congo-Brazzaville in September after the first leg in Abuja finished goalless."I am not denying that Nigeria played well, but we were on top of them. It was very painful the way we lost because we created a lot of chances," Simukonda said after the match."We made some silly mistakes and our opponents made use of their chances."Our strategy was to score early in order to unsettle the Nigerians with specific instructions to our backline not to allow any goal. But they allowed those two goals. That's how we lost."Simukonda also refused to blame his players."As a coach I cannot pass the blame on to the players. It was not the players’ intention to concede those two goals,” he said."I don't like excuses. We have just lost. We created three or four chances in the first half but we couldn’t take them."Simukonda’s Nigerian counterpart Samson Siasia, on the other hand, said he was delighted his team made the most of their chances."We are happy that have qualified for the All Africa Games football event after not being there for some time now. We utilised the two chances we had at goal and that sealed the victory for us," Siasia said.