AFCON
NFF CEO, Sanusi praises one hundred per cent Super Eagles as Guinea Bissau fall
The Group D of the Africa Cup of Nations have been left with the carcasses of teams consumed by the Super Eagles.
The CEO of the Nigeria Football Federation, the brand custodian of the Super Eagles, Dr Mohammed Sanusi is in sky seven, loftily praising his boys for job well executed so far.
In a media release from Ademola Olajire, the NFF Director of Communications, Dr. Sanusi 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 one hundred per cent record.
Goals by Sadiq Umar and William Ekong saw off the ‘Wild Dogs’ of Guinea Bissau bullied into tucking their tails in between their hind limbs.
“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 per cent 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 half time, the Wild Dogs could have gone ahead when Fernando Barbosa Intima was presented a free sight of goal only for him to hit the ball fra away from where it could have troubled goalkeeper Francis Uzoho.
In the second half, Nigeria stepped up a gear and it was left for Kelechi Iheanacho, who scored the only goal in the match against Egypt on the 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 tap 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 defence –confounding run by Simon at the end almost gifted Nigeria a third goal.
The 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.
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.
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