The Super Eagles of Nigeria played out a hard fought 0-0 draw with Rwanda, in their second Group D game of the 2025 AFCON qualifiers at Amahoro Stadium Kigali on Tuesday, Completesports.com reports.
After two games played the Eagles temporarily top the group on four points while Rwanda are second on two points having recorded their second draw.
Interim Super Eagles coach, Austin Eguavoen, made just one change in his starting 11 with Fisayo Dele-Bashiru coming in for Alex Iwobi.
Bruno Onyeamachi had the first big chance in the 3rd minute but failed to get a clean strike on Ademola Lookman’s cutback.
In the 5th minute Wilfred Ndidi hit a low shot just outside the box from a laid pass from Victor Boniface but his effort was well saved by the Rwanda goalkeeper.
A minute later Bonheur Mogisha was left unmarked inside the box but saw his header from a cross go just over the bar.
In the 13th minute, Calvin Bassey made a timely block to stop a goal-bound shot from a Rwandan player.
Ademola Lookman went close on 15 minutes after driving into the opponent’s box but was denied by the goalkeeper who rushed out of his line to deny him.
On 22 minutes, Lookman thought he had opened the scoring as he headed in a cross from Semi Ajayi, but his effort was disallowed for a foul.
Moments later, Boniface almost opened the scoring but was denied as his strike from a cross was blocked away for a corner kick.
In the 37th minute Boniface saw his left foot strike hit the crossbar while Lookman’s header from the rebound was cleared away.
With five minutes left in the first half Onyemaechi headed a cross but his effort went just wide.
On the stroke of half time a Rwanda player sent in a dangerous cross inside the Eagles box but Stanley Nwabali calmly claimed the ball in the air.
Before the start of the second half the Eagles made double substitutions with Victor Osimhen and Moses Simon replacing Boniface and Samuel Chukwueze.
Simon almost opened the scoring on 55 minutes after he was played through on goal but the goalkeeper came out to block his effort for a corner.
In the 68th minute the Rwandans went close after good interchange of play but the final effort went wide.
With 10 minutes left a long ball from a Rwanda player was well claimed in the air by Nwabali.
In the 84th minute, Ola Aina drove into the Rwanda area but his attempted cross was blocked away to safety.
Few minutes later Aina went on a solo run but saw his shot punched away, and seconds later Lookman attempted volley was also saved by the keeper.
At the other end Nwabali was called to action and he made a good save.
Osimhen almost won it for the Super Eagles in stoppage time as he rose to meet a cross but the keeper made a good save.
Up next for the Eagles in the AFCON qualifiers is a home game against Libya on matchday 3 in Uyo scheduled for October 6, while the reverse fixture is billed for October 14.
By James Agberebi
21 Comments
Eguavoen is still useless and clueless.
I still don’t understand what you fans want, a match that the home team only recorded one goal on target while the visiting team recorded over 7 goal on target including some superb save from the Rwanda goal keeper and a good strike hitting the woodwork. You guys should learn to be calming down and be more objective in your expectations!
You didn’t add plus a disallowed goal. Clearly the ref was protecting the interest of the home team as every ball we won was a free kick against us.
Eguavoen has really upgraded. Except a foreign TA is a grade A coach and evidently better, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to simply continue in this new vibe/energy.
Rwanda with no known superstars managed to get a point off us for several reasons. 1. Caf officials continuously manipulating matches involving Nigeria. 2. Poor coaching substitutions 3. Lack of tenacity in the final 3rd to kill chances. The result is still not the worst compared to WCQ group. I am still waiting to see how the ever dubious NFF will react and what now with the SE coaching Job??? Eguadiola is not bad but for long term he will always find it tough against a more advanced team.
Give it to Austin Eguavoen. There is a positive vibe in the SE team and you can see the positive and confident display in Kigali throughout the 90 minutes. Eguavoen’s deployment and team selection is spot on and with better luck and good officiating SE would have won the game, with atleast 2 goals before half time.
I wouldn’t mind if he takes the mantle given his experience, knowledge and chemistry of the team.
Yes he is an upgrade to Finidi but the leadership of Nigeria football has failed to fix the manipulations always coming from North African refs. I don’t understand how that flicking header to Lookman was a foul? African continent sucks and I don’t understand why the hate towards my Country???
Now you’re talking, some of you guys don’t analyse football, you just care about winning not how the winning comes, but there are a lot of positivity in this Eguavoen team. No 1 that we didn’t convert our chances is not Eguavoen’s fault,in other words this team created a lot of chances, I will say I was impressed with Eguavoen football, I can see improvement in him. He’s not bumping forward like he used to do. The way the team managed possession was lovely. The arrangement of the players is also lovely
We have our players scattered all over the field, it didn’t look as if we are not complete, there’s no situation where opponent will get to our midfield or our flank and we will lack number there, that is he caged the opponent and makes them look like they are inside hole. He’s been fantastic so far.
T’m not actually trying to say he can takeover SE, before I can say that, I will like to see how he’s going to fare against big team and how he’s going to cope with pressure. If he can do well in those area, why not, he can takeover as SE coach, with what I’ve seen him done in these two matches shows he has improved and why not, he’s been around for awhile now. He knows the guys and he did not have to start experimenting bcos he had seen these guys played different styles under different coaches.
My support rate for him is 50% for now.
He’s good for interim and might be better than some of the shortlisted coaches. But I fear he might be a part of the NFF nonsense.
We still need a foreign/good coach…. I can’t trust Eguavoen against a more solid team. We were the better team and missed a plethora of chances and then bad officiating but there are still some technical deficiencies in that team. How do you take out CAM and bring in 2 DM when we were pushing up for a goal. Kudos to Onyeka …. He did well in those dying minutes.
…we missed a plethora of chances bla bla black sheep… Was Eguavoen to enter the pitch to convert the scoring chances? Personally i can see work in progress as what this team of coaches need now is more time. An away point is a + and not – in soccer.
E go soon shock una lol Rwanda and Benin with 5 defenders and you people are over joyous lol
Is that the size of your brain???
Nothing dey shock there, fellow. The same Eguavoen made mince meat of Rohr(3.0), a foreign coach. So where is your shock supposed to come from? Just like I said in my comment above, Egu and co needs more time on the job for better performance. That’s exactly what the NFF will do instead of wasting their time pushing rats in the name of searching for some UNTESTED FOREIGN LABBADIA
Eagles are really playing well under eguavon.
Hmmmmm some people comments can cause running stomach. The Eagles played very well the referee is a kill joy there is nothing wrong with the disallowed goal. Eguavoen has my vote of confidence. The team will come good. I saw hunger and determination in their play in both matches they can only get better. Well-done young men keep it up.
please can someone beg CAF to stop giving TV rights to mediocre like Afrosports or any TV station in Nigeria
I don’t see any reason playing team like Rwanda with 3 defenders haba a good coach will sub one center half and play double striker
That how paseiro was playing double striker and was loosing. I wonder what you need formation for in this kind of performance. The opponent could not impose any treat, and we had many opportunities to score, is it 5 or even more and we can blame eguavoen for the players not taking their chances. If they had converted 3 of those chances no one will be complaining. And the same way, we need to be able to see beyond the result and look at how the team control the play and how well they are able to create chances.
Not a bad one but hopefully we see what Eguaveon wards would play next month. Good luck SE owned by Nigeria.
I thought the Eagles played well regardless of the final outcome. Let’s not forget that a perfectly legitimate goal was scored but was controversially ruled out for no justified reason. I understand the reason why Eguaveon was a tad cautious. He understands that a draw is more acceptable than a loss, which to me was fair enough. The only tweak I would have suggested would have been the introduction of Iwobi in place of Chukwueze. Iwobi to me would function better as one of the number 10s behind the main striker along with Lookman. Iwobi is not a central midfielder hence my suggestion for the role behind the main striker along with Lookman. I feel Chukwueze is not cutout for that role in this system. Simon was tried there as well but he failed to deliver. Let’s give that role to Iwobi which I think suits him better. He often plays similar role for his club.
The duo of Dele-Bashiru and Ndidi was immaculate in the central position today adopting a combination of grit and niftiness to sometimes outwit the physical Rwandese. Going forward, we need this type of tandem in African football.
To me, the future looks bright for this team only if they are allowed to play a series of friendly games to polish some rough edges and perfect some combinations.
Not a bad one but hopefully Eguaveon wards would play some fantastic game next month. Good luck though
This is one of those games where although we did not win, one can not help but be happy.
The team performance was good, we dominated the game, created chances. We had the ball in the net. The ref should explain why he disallowed what looks like a clear goal. Boni even hit the cross bar. Plus an acrobatic Lookman effort was saved by the Rwanda goalie. BTW, this Lookman na goal machine ooo. He impressed me yet again today with his hunger and drive for goal.
So, this match could easily have ended in a big win for us. Most important, Rwanda hardly ever threatened our goal. The Ekong marshalled defence kept them at bay quite comfortably.
The problem we had under Peseiro was that while the defense was solid, the attack was weak. The problem appears to be resolving nicely now. 3-4-3 is not a defensive system! We see how Bayer Leverkusen demolish opponents with this system. Now, Egu seems to have figured our how to attack with it, and I must say our boys are looking really good out there.
What we need now is high profile friendly matches, so the team can gel, and the boys can fully integrate this playing philosophy. Of course, we also need NFF to pay coaches salaries and players bonuses!!!
All considered, this team appears to be moving in the right direction. Kudos to coach Egu and the entire team.