General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi has praised the Super Eagles’ buoyant play as Nigeria on Wednesday night became the first country at the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations to finish the group phase with a one hundred percent record. Goals by Sadiq Umar and William Ekong saw off the Wild Dogs of Guinea Bissau in northern Cameroon.
“It was an excellent performance by the Super Eagles and they have again won all their group phase matches as they did in Egypt in 2006, also under Eguavoen. The NFF is proud of the team’s outings so far and we believe it can go all the way.”
The Eagles had emerged group winners before taking to the turf of Stade Roumdé Adjia in Garoua but needed to win for Head Coach Augustine Eguavoen to accomplish a repeat of his one hundred percent group phase record set at the 25th AFCON in Egypt 16 years ago.
The former defender made eight changes to the starting line-up, but Nigeria still created a hatful of chances in the opening half-hour only for forward Sadiq Umar to fail to convert the opportunities, which mostly came his way.
In the third minute, he was slow to pull the trigger inside the opposition’s box, and 20 minutes later cocked up a great move and pass by midfielder Kelechi Nwakali.
Nine minutes earlier, defender Semi Ajayi had come close with a header from Nwakali’s corner. Just before halftime, the Wild Dogs could have gone ahead when Fernando Barbosa Intima has presented a free sight of the goal only for him to hit the ball far away from where it could have troubled goalkeeper Francis Uzoho.
In the second half, Super Eagles stepped up a gear and it was left for Kelechi Iheanacho, who scored the only goal in the match against Egypt on an opening day, to take matters into his own hands. He exchanged passes with midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and then slipped into the box to pop the ball past goalkeeper Maurice Gomis for Umar to have tapped into the net. This was in the 55th minute
The introduction of the brilliant Moses Simon and Peter Olayinka in the 56th minute buoyed Nigeria’s forward play even more. But the Dogs could have equalized on the hour mark when a free-kick by Samba Balde hit a Nigerian defender and sliced past Uzoho’s goalpost.
In the 75th minute, it was time for Simon to take matters into his own hands. He received the ball on the left-wing and darted past three defenders before rocking the crossbar with a ferocious shot. The ball came off the underside of the bar, but Ekong was there to toe-poke into the net.
With 10 minutes left, Uzoho was rattled by a shot as the Dogs poured forward, but another defense –confounding run by Simon at the end almost gifted Nigeria the third goal.
The Super Eagles await one of the third-placed teams from any of groups B, E, and F in Sunday’s Round of 16 at the now-familiar Stade Roumdé Adjia.
