-
Colin Udoh, Special to ESPN
Nigeria‘s Super Eagles proved that they are most dangerous when they have their backs to the wall, securing a 1-0 win over hosts and favourites Ivory Coast on the back of defender William Troost-Ekong‘s second half penalty kick.
Opening their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea, ranked 46 places below them, the three-time champions could ill-afford to lose their second game. It could have left them needing to win their last game to advance, or rely on the third-place spot in the group.
Beyond the permutations of the bracket however, the Super Eagles needed to get the kind of result that would get their fans back on-side after that early disappointment.
There were a lot of positives to take from the game, aside from the win, though.
A decent goalkeeper, at last?!
Goalkeeping has been Nigeria’s Achilles heel in recent years, with gaffes from the 1-2 combo of Francis Uzoho and Maduka Okoye a constant frustration. In two games, however, Stanley Nwabali has brought something of a calm confidence between the sticks that the Super Eagles have lacked.
His movement, positioning and reactions have been excellent. Twice in this game, he came to the rescue of his defenders, especially after a Zaidu Sanusi snafu that almost led to an undeserved Côte d’Ivoire goal.
In the second half, he sprinted off his line to make an authoritative punch out on a ball near the top of the box where other goalkeepers would have been indecisive, and he showed even more good, decision-making in coming off his line again to get a strong hand on the ball and deny Pepê, who was clean through.
In the build up to the game, Nwabali was taken to task about not keeping a clean sheet in his two previous games. His confident response was that the clean sheet would come. And here it is. That is the sort of goalkeeping Nigerians have been crying for. A couple of games are too small a sample size to judge if he is the long term solution, but if he keeps this up, he could well be.
Aina leads the defence with aplomb
Striker Victor Osimhen was awarded the official player of the match, but by rights, that should have gone to Ola Aina. Nigeria’s defence has been a source of constant flak for being ill-disciplined and making errors that cost the team. Not so here.
Aina was far and way the best player on the pitch, playing as a wingback in that five-man defence. He defended stoutly against Fofana, and made lung-bursting runs up front to support the attack.
If Samuel Chukwueze had been a little less selfish, it’s possible that the Fulham man could well have got helped himself to a goal on one of those runs. And towards the end, when the Super Eagles needed to stay tight to keep the Ivoriens at bay and hang on to their lead, Aina was always available to make the tackles.
Ok, great defence… But where are the goals?
Despite the win, there was still something missing: finishing. Just like in the previous games, the Super Eagles created chances. Not as much as they did against Equatorial Guinea, but they opened up the Elephants’ defence for nought.
Osimhen had an early opportunity but shot high. He also headed just over from Aina’s throw in. Samuel Chukwueze had his own opportunity but rather than play Aina or Lookman who both free, he chose to run himself into a cul de sac. Substitute Bright Osayi-Samuel found himself in a similar position and made the same incorrect decision.
The fact that defender Troost-Ekong was picked to take the penalty kick seems to be a concern borne of the forwards not scoring. At some point, some of these balls are going to need to start going in to avoid fans’ high blood pressure.
Peseiro staking a claim on his job
Coach Jose Peseiro has taken a lot of knocks from Nigerians over his team’s style and some abysmal results, including that home loss to Guinea Bissau in AFCON qualifying last year. But even though the buck stops with him, it is hard to put the blame on him for the result against Equatorial Guinea. He set his team up well enough to win the game, and they created a multitude of opportunities based on that.
Putting those chances away was another matter entirely, and he had no backup striker to call on with Victor Osimhen misfiring on the day. The Equato-Guineans also scored on defensive errors that professional players of the Super Eagles caliber should do better on.
Against CIV’s Elephants, his 5-4-1 set up was perfect to nullify the midfield threat in numbers of the Ivoriens and stifle their forwards, allowing the Super Eagles thrive on the break. Even though they did not quite exploit their speed as they should, they still caused the Ivoriens plenty of problems on the break, and that was enough.
Players show strength of character
This team have had questions asked of their character numerous times since Peseiro took over, and rightly so. Going on a stretch of 15 friendly games without a win, losing to the likes of Guinea Bissau, struggling to draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in World Cup qualifying, and then that result against Equatorial Guinea.
This was a big test for this iteration of Super Eagles to prove that they could stand up to their predecessors when it came to big games and against big names. How would they look, but most importantly, how would they stack up. Well, they did so with ease.
At no point in the game did they look intimidated or cowed. Instead, they took the game to the hosts, forced them into errors, got in behind and created opportunities. They did not take their chances, but they didn’t give any either. The defence, led by Troost-Ekong, held firm and stout and limited the Ivoriens to hopeful efforts with little danger.
