The Super Eagles before the match
Nigeria’s Super Eagles draw with Cape Verde in W’Cup Qualifiers
Nigeria’s senior national football team, the Super Eagles on Tuesday in Lagos secured a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Cape Verde to reach the final round of African qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup finals.
Played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, the outcome of the match left fans of the Super Eagles disappointed as their star studded darling team could only settle for a draw one all against the more-determined Blue Sharks.
Napoli of Italy striker, Victor Osimhen, scored Nigeria’s solo goal in the opening minute from a Moses Simon cross.
Barely five minutes later, the Eagles were pegged back by a Mendes Stipora goal, from a corner-kick clinical finishing header.
From then on, the Super Eagles thereafter failed to hit the back of the net in spite of intense pressure, with Odion Ighalo failing to connect a pass from Osimhen in the 30th minute.
As the match wore on, the second stanza of the high intensity game was however more nervy for the Nigerian team as the visitors became more daring with a good string of passes in the Eagles’ half.
In an attempt to change the course of the game, both team’s coaches made substitutions with Shehu Abdulahi coming in for the injured Moses Simon, Kelechi Iheanacho also came in for Ighalo, whike Paul Onuachu replaced Osimhen.
Super Eagles’ head coach, Gernot Rohr, who spoke on the sidelines of the match explained that the team had to settle for a draw in view of the technicality of the game.
Rohr said, “It was not an easy game because the Cape Verde team has a very good technical team.
“They secured their goal at a moment when we believed we had the match in our hands.
“Sometimes a draw might be an escape because we want to qualify and we know that a draw will do that.
“But we missed lots of chances, especially in the first half, and we deserved to score a second goal.
“But as it was not coming, we had to defend.”
Explaining the inclusion of Odion Ighalo in the team, Rohr said the decision was to allow him to have an impact on the forwards in view of his wealth of experience.
“We need a lot of patience with Ighalo. He has not been with the team in about a year, so he needs time to find the complexity and the harmony in the team.
“We saw an interesting thing in the match with Ighalo’s patnership with Osimhen, who needs to learn from him.
“The chance to score our goal came in through Ighalo,” he said.
Rohr also said that the Eagles needed to play more quickly, especially from the defence in order to plug the loopholes in the team.
“The improvement I want to see in the team is using the opportunity we have to score and to be more offensive.
“We need to play quicker from the defence. One or two touches, coming from the defence. Our defenders are too slow bringing the balls from their area.
“But, as it is now, we have finished with 13 points from six matches. It is not the best result, but we have two more points than the second-placed team.
“After this group stage, we are optimistic now that we have more time to prepare. Some of our players are just coming out from injuries,” he said.
The Blue Sharks’ coach, Pedro Brito, on his part, commended the efforts of the Eagles and also tipped them to qualify for the World Cup, given the availability of more experienced players in the team.
