Nigerian Football
MANCHESTER UNITED BOSS BANKS ON ODION IGHALO FOR TOP-FOUR FINISH
Manchester United had a disappointing home game on Wednesday night forcing a 1-1 draw with West Ham United.
The score line only temporarily put them at the third position ahead of fellow contenders, Chelsea and Leicester City.
The crunch match for Manchester United will be on Sunday when they are away to Leicester City in what could be their final finish decider.
As the current season hit the home stretch Manchester Uinited Boss, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has identified former Super Eagles forward, Odion Jude Ighalo and Portuguese star player, Bruno Fernandes as the key to the team’s rise to the top four quest this season.
After Wednesday night’s outing against struggling West Ham United to push the former European champions to torching distant to make the top-four finish and play in the UEFA Champions League next football season, the club manager admitted that the duo added resilience to the club’s adventure in the second half of the season.
“I think we’ve grown over the whole season,” Solskjaer told reporters.
“The additions of Odion, Bruno and Paul coming back, (plus) Marcus coming back is a strength for us. We are better as a group and more robust and resilient.
“The proof is in the pudding and we’ll have to see on Wednesday how they perform,” he remarked ahead of the match last night at Old Trafford.
The Reds tasted their first defeat in all competitions last Sunday in a 1-3 loss to Chelsea at the Wembley Stadium in the second semi final of FA Cup but had maintained a 13-match unbeaten run in the league restart.
Manchester United were defeated for the first time since January, in all competitions, in Sunday’s Emirates FA Cup semi-final tie with Chelsea, but will be looking to extend our unbeaten run to 14 league games when we face West Ham United on Wednesday, and Leicester City on Sunday.
Avoiding defeat in final match away to Leicester City will be enough for Champions League football slot next season, and the manager believes his winter signings – coupled with the return from injury of Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford – have been vital in helping us close what was a significant gap to our top-four rivals.
The disappointing 3-1 reverse to Chelsea at Wembley at the weekend put paid to hopes of a first domestic trophy for Solskjaer, although silverware could still arrive by way of next month’s Europa League.
Ahead of a massive five days for United, the boss said that his side need to react to the setback of defeat, as they have before, and get a positive result over West Ham at Old Trafford, which will see us leapfrog Leicester going into the final-day showdown at the King Power Stadium.
“When you lose a game, you’re hurt and disappointed,“ he admitted. ”You’ve just got to focus on the next thing.
“A defeat isn’t the end of the world – it was the end of the FA Cup dream and the final, but now it’s business as usual and onto the next game.
“We’ve had so many setbacks as a club before. We’ve lost big games before and we’ve turned that around and that’s what we need to do now.”
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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