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/Completesports.com’s Live Blogging of Nigeria Vs Sierra Leone – AFCON 2023 qualifying match at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
Live Blogging: Nigeria Vs Sierra Leone – AFCON 2023 Qualifiers
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Nnamdi Ezekute
Nnamdi Ezekute, a sports reporting expert, has risen through the ranks at Complete Communications Limited (CCL) famed for publications like Complete Sports.
Email: nnamdi.ezekute@completesportsnigeria.com
X (Formerly Twitter): @Ezekutive
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62 Comments
Is time to FLY EAGLES!!!
where can one watch this match online? The Nigeria versus Sierra Leone game. Thanks
Hesgoal.com
This is the beauty of Quality friendly matches, you discover new things in your players.. who saw iwobi playing deep in midfield in the Ecuador game.. iwobi has improved defensively and if we does well today, he would be adding defensive midfield as one of his roles in the super eagles, he did play as a right wing back in Everton , he will do well today
Iwobi didn’t play 4, he played side by side with Aribo and was dropping to get ball more.
Please any links to watch the game.
Link please,
http://www.hesgoal.com/news/104954/Nigeria_vs_Sierra_Leone.html
https://www.vipbox.lc/football-live#
It’s live on DSTV Channel 209. Very horrible pitch. Blame the NFF if SE didn’t win this match
Ok wow this is getting interesting
Defense just let them in like that smh
I think it is high time the revamp the entire defense.
It is high time the coach revamp the entire defense.
So the sports ministry didn’t set up a maintenance team for the pitch of the Abuja stadium shocking!
Why are you shocked…? If the pitch doesnt end up in ICU, where will there be another avenue to quote “N400m for re-grassing of the MKO Abiola National Stadium pitch in the 2023 budget…?
Even CAF that is based in Cairo knows that the best playing pitch in Nigeria is in Uyo.
The Ministry of Sports has offices right there in the national stadium, yet they never saw the state and extent of deterioration of this playing surface.
Is the pitch of good standard before? They just did a shoddy job and started making noise up and down. That sports minister suppose to have been sacked if Nigeria is a sane country. Imagine the pitch they spent billions of naira on few months ago. I think this is the second international match they will play on that pitch since it was commissioned. You know some players equally complained about that stadium after Ghana match.
Even Tanzania have a better pitch than us, we are just useless in everything
That’s it, someone can not be giant and not slow in everything like Elephant. Slow in thinking, slow in response, slow in development. Giant of Africa by foot
Our defences needs work…..We always look vulnerable at the back apart from Bassey.
Defence*
Nigeria’s biggest problems are profligacy in front of goal and Moses on set pieces, don’t get me wrong, I rate Moses very highly and would even go as far as saying that he is one of our best if not best player but we MUST move him off set pieces, corners and free kicks for crying out loud! Let him continue the brilliant wing play and trickery but stay well clear when it comes to set piece haba!
We have the makings of a good team, at least a competitive one simply from what I’ve seen of Peserio , he seems to be cut from a good cloth, he has the temperament and shows passion, eventually when the boys settle and what he is asking of them sinks in, I think we’ll see better results – Of the only other variable that must be gotten right has to be invitations and selections, only the very best and we have the best individaukky in Africa at least, we just need someone with half a brain and some serious cahunas to string it all together…could Peserio be the one? Only time can tell but I like what I see so far.
Oya 2nd half
It seems OSIMEHN is finally getting his POSITIONING right but needs to be CALMING DOWN. Always too ANXIOUS to SCORE..
Can someone tell CHUKWUEZE to be RAISING HIS HEAD once once when DAZZLING?
Mehn.. who do I need to THANK…LAMPARD??
LMFAO!!!
IWOBI is now feeling like a MIDFIELD LORD…
LMFAO!!!
Half Time!
I’m impressed.
‘our defense is leaking,’ you might say. I know. But you must consider the resources at the coach disposal. With no quality defensive midfielder currently and with the principle of attacking football, he has to do with two natural no10 as his central midfielders.
Moses Simon is man of the match so far. Next is Alex iwobi. My analysis of the game will come later.
@footballfanatic, it was due to the coach pattern and selection, we don’t have any recognize defensive midfielder on the pitch, it was IWOBI that’s playing the role.
It’s allow too much pressure on the defence because there is no ball breaker.
Secondly, Chukwueze and Simon are not helping out the defence, they supposed to be tracking back.
What the coach played is not for the wingers to join the defense buh to join the midfielders in marking
We look vulnerable at the back because there is no proper defensive midfielder and our formation is 442 ala 424 as Simon ans Samu are not attack minded.
So it was a mistake to take our WorldCup qualifiers to Abuja after all?? See pitch wey dem spend millions of dollars to renovate?? What exactly is our problem gan??
Nobody cares about anything but themselves. Wickedness. Corruption.
What is wrong with Nigeria Sports Mistry. They cannot even maintain a pitch. We are the ones sabotaging ourselves. These people are sick in the head. If you cannot do it. Outsource it.
So where all the DANGOTE MILLIONS for this PITCH now?
Kai NAIJA with CORRUPTION…
They must have bought and used SUBSTANDARD MATERIAL for the RENOVATION…
Adding Etebo into this game is a huge mistake. What do people see in this guy?!!
Come o! Is this goalie okay? I didnt like that at all o, why did he not just come for that ball? Ah oga o!
Okay, I’ve seen enough, I don’t know why but Aina is NOT up for or up to this game, either way, oga Peserio needs to take him off
Ah ah Wetin na, does Peserio now trying to tell us he has not heard of subs?
Ola aina and should have gone off by now and I want to see Dessers a beg joor o
That pitch caused the injury to Ekong. Poor pitch yet again NFF
The team needs some cleansing but as long as picnic is still in charge.. Etebo and other inactive players will continue to be selected..
Accessing this match keenly, i submit that we the Super Eagles is over just hyped. Nothing spectacular about this trash team yet.
It’s time Nigeria source determined players irrespective of the clubs they play for, inasmuch the quality to play for the national team is there.
Harsh to judge the team’s performance on that treacherous pitch. I think the boys showed the right spirit for the game and more importantly won the game.
Anytime the team is losing, the players are overhyped, even before the match ends. Anytime they are winning, Nigeria has a group of highly talented players. Nigerian fans. Nobody is talking about the pitch. No one is talking about the coach being new on the job. No one is talking the new system and philosophy he’s trying to introduce. Players are the guolty party who must always take the flags. NFF isn’t overhyped. It is the players that are overrated. . The same of overhyped players ended so well in Spain, Scotland, Holland, Italy, Germany, name them. We shall should sometimes be realistic and considerate in our criticism as times.
@ Oladapo
Bro Yes o!
And while there re at it let them sort out those embarrassingly disappointing pitches too!
Unbelievable!!
Our govt is sabotaging us with their corruption!
I belief we play the most entertaining and purposeful football.We could have walloped them 5:0. Next time we will win 6:0,4:0 because we are super eagles. We have A grade players in top league accross the world and now we have world class coach with winning mentality so every team must fall
Such a silly comment. What are you smoking?
Chief – I was just thinking the same, I am left pondering if that comment is tongue-in-cheek or out of sheer blind patriotic wishful thinking –
The sentiment is on the right tracks at least I’ll give him that much lol
Ekong project, Please God take it off Nigeria caused the first goal. One one one dribble. Always causing us problems every match.
This chukwueze player needs help o. The change should have come earlier. Chukwueze should be coming off from the bench.
Bassey very good player. Good crossers of the ball. Good defensively.
That aina cross is world Class. Being playing with injury. Still formidable.
I think Aribo can’t handle African football. We don try for am. They moved him up, he still was not effective.
Please ekong and ajayi no be good pair o. Prome to stupid errors. Balogun and omeruo should replace this duo.
Coavh don’t try that iwobi Aribo midfield again it explained the defence. Much improvement when etebo came in.
Well good win for pesseiro. We should habe scored some goals to take off the pressure in the last minute.
How many goals did we score? When Etebo came in? I wonder what version of this match you saw. We scored 2 goals because we opened them up with Aribo and Iwobi. Etebo coming in killed the attack. We were too predictable. Onyeka should have been a better player in that position. Because he is forward-thinking.
Neo. But we could have conceded goals. You think using Aribo amd iwobi was a good option defensively. That pair exposed the defense. You only looked in the aspect of scoring.
How long are we going to cry about bad pitches. Nff and sports ministry a great embarrassment. How do you bring any team to play on this kind of pitch. Let us follower the rest of the world.
The pitch was poor, but kudos to the boys.. they did their Best, we should commend their effort.. friendly matches are so important.. it gave confidence in Ajayi,I can’t remember the last time Ajayi played in a competitive march ( I know he played in the afcon) he seems to have broken the oyibo wall( na black oyibo him be).. he should be commended for doing that. He was the last player to break the oyibo wall and he is back again to break it…
Just look at iwobi, the friendly games made him discover a new position, in defensive midfield..
Players like awaziem should not be invited going further,let him get a good club first.. he was poor in the friendly games, it showed he needs to up his game.. so sorry for desser, the chances he missed caused him his spot in the team.. you don’t miss such chances when you are competing with Sadiq and oshimen.. Sadiq was very good in the first half..
Impressive coaching, one thing I love about this new coache is the way he chances formation, from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3.
We are getting better. We should encourage them , Sierra Leone was the same team we could win home and away few yrs ago. And we saw how good they were at the last afcon..
The NFF have ONCE AGAIN failed in their duty to provide a proper pitch for an international match.
They need to explain why the pitch was in such a sorry state.
The performance of the team was subpar. But then, how can we expect them to perform on this eyesore of a pitch? The pitch obviously did not help our players. However, our players did not help themselves either, with the catalogue of missed chances.
2 goals were scored today, which is fine. But when you consider that we could easily have had 4 or 5 goals, then it’s clear we have a problem. We almost paid for it in the final minutes of the game, as S/L took control and came really close to drawing level. If we had taken our chances, the final minutes would not have been such a nail-biting affair.
@ Pompei
Broda man, I have a serious question
If we (and well we do as just fans) know these things which are the very basic building blocks in football today (2022)- The Pitch, The Finance, The PR and the A-Z organisation of the business side then why is it not you or I or any number of the zillions of younger generation and enlightened Nigerians out there today running our country’s football but rather silly, unintelligent and often unintelligible, archaic and backward greedy ape men or for a more current definition “morons” running Nigeria’s football?
This is an anomally Yes, but why does it still exist even though we all see it?
Or do we all see it?
Can we not really do something about this sorry state of affairs?
If only Malcolm was alive and a Nigerian!
Rubbish!
We keep talking about the same things over and over and over again. Common pitch, our NFF can’t provide. I don tire jare. Let them continue to do whatever they like!
I seriously think Nigerian fans should stage a massive peaceful protest. It has gotten to that point. How can it be that a country like Nigeria cannot 1 football pitch?
Missed alot of scoring chances, chukwueze’s own was particularly shocking..Good response from these lads.After all we couldn’t beat this same Sierra Leone in a slightly better playing surface under Rohr. Even ivorycoast struggled against them at Afcon.with more wins, the team confidence will come back fully. Apart from the horrible pitch, every other thing was impressive to me.
@Ololo
Well said bro
Gbayi!
Did anyone noticed that chukwueze now uses his right foot?
Wow I’m impressed, with that he can’t be predictable again and more crosses which can result in goes.
Kudos to aina and bassey for their beautiful crosses and also big ups to the coaching crew for improving the team.
Osihme needs to be cleanical in front of goal, he needs to prove the 100 million tag placed on him.
Over all it an improved team but more work needs to be done especially on defense .
That injury on ekong looks very serious.. hope he didn’t rupture the cruciate ligament.. he is obviously out of the second match.. this type of injury is not what ekong needs at the moment, he needs to return to his club and claim his first team shirt and this is happening to him.. too bad, he gave his best in the period he was in the team… Pls we should not insult him ,he did his best. yes he was dribbled for the first goal, but where was aino ,he Left ekong exposed, every defender can be dribbled , so we should free the young man.. he needs our encouragement and support and not insult because this injury Might affect his career if it is serious..
Do we have replacements ,yes we do, Ajayi is maturity just at the right time, we have not tried bassey in the defense, balogun seem to be affected by the non renewal of his rangers contract, he might not be psychological stable at the moment, we all know how he begged for that contract yet rejected… Simon had two assist today but I will give my man of the match to oshimen or iwobi they were very good today
The only villain today is the sports ministry and the NFF. The playing surface is treacherous and the reason we lost Ekong( Though i do not wish any player injury, i would not lose sleep over his absence) and Osimhen.
Is it that NFF didn’t ascertain the state of the pitch before approving it for this game? What level of corruption would allow a pitch that was used to play the wc qualifiers against ghana degenerate this rapidly!
On the positives, I think Iwobi has rediscovered his mojo. This was the promising player that broke into the arsenal first team under Wenger. I am happy for him, he should keep it up.
Lookman is way more technical thank Chukwueze and should bench the latter going forward.
Bassey is turning into a seasoned performer, he is adding more consistency to his game for a player so young.
Osimhen is Osimhen, definitely our best and most reliable striker.
Please leave the pitch alone. It’s glaring they over maintained it. The Eagles played rubbish. They were fortunate to have won that game. They didn’t play like pro one bit. The midfield was porous. This coach has a lot on his plate. He needs to discover new players. Some of this Rorh package needs to go.
It is just a pity that sports minister and NFF are not their to make things easier for our national teams but just like Nigerian politicians.
The Nigerian politicians are not for the citizens while NFF and Sports minister are not for the national teams but for themselves.
I saw the MKO Abuja national stadium today against Sierra Leone and am shocked. How could NFF and sports minister gave go ahead to play on such a pitch?
Nigerian leaders have finished Nigeria. God can not come to do the job in Nigeria for us but we can only pray and make the move by ourselves then leave the rest for God.
This is the time I want to see if Nigerian youths are not lazy as president Buhari have said.
The youth have to go all out and chase our oppressors out of the system. Enough of this woto woto kę. Who does that? We did not enjoy anything under Buhari as the current president and another kerewa kerewawa president will replace him?
What is wrong with us Nigerians? Can’t we choose the right people to run Nigeria for us ni?
Can’t we see that there is no transparency in Nigeria?
Nigerian Youth should wake up and fight for Nigeria although, many of them are working for our oppressors but if we don’t get it right in 2023 then Nigeria is finished.
It is not about “emi lokan”, my turn but it is all about who can get the job done to make life easier for Nigerians both home and abroad.
There’s no accountability in Nigeria otherwise, people in charge of our sports should be hold responsible for MKO Abuja stadium. We can’t keep silent on this issue.
Our players tried their best to play on that bad pitch.
A lot of money spent on that MKO Abuja stadium few months ago but now, the pitch is very bad. They did a shabby job on that pitch.
NFF and sports minister should be ashamed of themselves. Am speechless. This is very embarrassing NFF. Too bad. God bless Nigeria!!!