I regret my mistake that led to Nigeria’s elimination from 2022 AFCON – Maduka Okoye

Maduka Okoye, Super Eagles goalkeeper has revealed that he regrets his error that cost the national team in the round of 16 at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

Recall that the Super Eagles  under the tutelage of  Augustine Eguavoen, enjoyed a fine start to the tournament, gliding past Egypt, Guinea Bissau, and Sudan with ease scooping 9 points from possible 9.

This gave fans hope of the Eagles going all the way to claim a fourth AFCON title.

However, they were defeated by Tunisia, who were struggling with injuries in the next round.

Okoye misjudged a shot from Youssef Msakni, with the ball creeping past him and went into the net.

Alex Iwobi also got sent off seven minutes after he was brought on, resulting in outrage on social media.

It was the last time Okoye played for Nigeria, as he either was not called up or he watched from the bench.

In an interview with Oma, Okoye opened up on the incident.

He said: “At that moment, I told myself I should have done better. It pains me till today, to be honest.

“You could see it was a mistake because I had to keep the ball out of the goal. If I want to play at Inter Milan, then I have to do better in such situations.

“I’ve been training hard, improving in the last two years because I don’t want things like that to happen again.

“Mistakes happen, last week, Manuel Neuer, who is one of the best, made a mistake. It’s part of the game, and it was hard for me as a young boy to go through it after it happened.

“I’m not just talking about what I read on social media, it’s more about the feeling of letting your teammates down, your family down, and letting your country down.

“At this stage, I’m not even reading the nonsense on social media anymore. Some people still talk bad about Cristiano Ronaldo despite his achievements.

“People will always say something bad about you. I know myself that I didn’t do good in that situation, and I know that I let my teammates and my country down in that situation.

“And I’m still to this day unhappy and sad about it, and I wish I could do differently, but it happened and I learned from my mistake.”