AFCON
13 AMAZING FACTS ON NIGERIA-SIERRA LEONE AFCON QUALIFIERS
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
Nigeria’s Super Eagles are characteristically hoping to pick qualifying, with matches to spare, ticket for the next Africa Cup of Nations finals due to hold in Cameroon. In the last two major tournaments featured – the Russia 2018 and Africa Cup of Nations 2019, qualifications were obtained ahead of conclusion of series.
They are already on this familiar path and could qualify after the back-to-back encounters with Sierra Leone ..
As usual, www.sportsvillagesquare.com takes an insightful look at the fixtures and comes out with the following points of interest.
- Both teams had their first international encounter facing each other 71 years, one month and four days ago today.
- Both teams first met on 8 October 1949 when the Nigerian side made a stopover in Freetown in their return voyage from UK.
- The match at Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin will be the 22nd encounter of both teams. Nigeria’s Super Eagles have the upper hand, winning 14, drawing five times and losing just two.
- Nigerian football legend, Segun Odegbami, second highest scorer for the national team scored the first of his 21 goals for Nigeria in a World Cup qualifying match against Sierra Leone on 30 October 1976.
- Segun Odegbami made his international debut for Nigeria when he came in as a 40th minute substitute for Baba Otu Mohammed in a 16 October 1976 World Cup qualifier in Freetown.
- Former Africa Cup of Nations’ best left winger, Kunle Awesu played his last international match for Nigeria in a 30 October 1976 World Cup qualifier against Sierra Leone in Lagos.
- It was against Sierra Leone on 30 October 1976 that Muda Lawal first started from the bench for Nigeria.
- Sierra Leone spelt doom for former Nigeria’s Dutch coach, Johannes Bonfrere who last handled the Super Eagles when the team lost 1-0 on 21 April 2001 in a World Cup qualifying duel in Freetown.
- Sierra Leone was the last match that Peterside Idah played for Nigeria on 21 April 2001.
- The duel at Ogbemudia Stadium will be Nigeria’s 113rd Africa Cup of Nations’ qualifying match. For Sierra Leone, it will be their 74th in the qualifying series since their debut entry for the 1974 edition.
- The Nigeria versus Sierra Leone will be the fourth time an Africa Cup of Nation qualifying match is played in Benin City. The first time was when the then Green Eagles played a goalless outing with Morocco on 14 August 1983. The second time was the 1-0 defeat of Madagascar on 2 June 2001 while the third was the 2-2 draw with Angola on 21 June 2003 in the qualifying duel for Tunisia 2004.
- Although Nigeria defeated Sierra Leone 2-0 when they first met 71 years one month and four days ago, an own goal by Sierra Leone’s Ashman was Nigeria’s first ever international goal. Tesilimi Balogun scored the second goal.
- Nigeria’s Joseph Yobo goes into the record book as the first player to score for both Sierra Leone and Nigeria in a competitive series. Yobo scored Nigeria’s lone goal in the 1-0 defeat of Sierra Leone in Freetown in a 7 June 2008 World Cup qualifying match. In the reversed leg played on 11 October 2008 in Abuja, Yobo scored an own goal in the 4-1 defeat of Sierra Leone.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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