Super Eagles Fail to Soar Past Leone Stars in Freetown
The Super Eagles of Nigeria were held to a goalless draw on Tuesday by the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixture in Freetown.
Super Eagles would now have to wait for the other group games to go in their favour to confirm their place at Cameroon 2022, though they remain at the top of Group L with eight points after four matches.
Recent results have prompted Nigerians to question the technical competence of Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr.
Eagle had earlier played an annoying 4-4 draw on Friday’s in Benin City, and coach Gernot Rohr made two changes to the starting 11 as Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho led the attack, in the absence of injured Victor Osimhen while Fulham’s Ola Aina got the nod ahead of Zaidu Sanusi.
The Super Eagles started the encounter on a promising note with Iheanacho registering the first shot on target in the third minute but his free-kick failed to beat goalkeeper Mohamed Kamara.
A few minutes before the half-hour mark, Sierra Leone had their first real chance but Mohamed Buya Turay’s strike from outside the penalty area was comfortably saved by Maduka Okoye.
John Keister’s men continued to push for the opener but Okoye was ready to produce some fine saves to keep both teams level in the first 45 minutes.
Nigeria were forced to make an early substitution towards the end of the first-half as Oghenekaro Etebo was replaced by Abdullahi Shehu who was injured.
Six minutes after the restart, Iheanacho had another chance but failed to convert.
Eagles’ captain Ahmed Musa was shown the only yellow card of the encounter in the 71st minute while Akpoguma came off for Chidozie Awaziem shortly thereafter.
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