William Troost-Ekong believes the Super Eagles deserved more than one point from their clash with Rwanda.
Augustine Eguavoen’s side were held to a 0-0 draw by the Amavubi in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matchday two encounter at the Amahoro Stadium, Kigali on Tuesday.
The Super Eagles dominated the but were let down by their poor marksmanship.
Troost-Ekong however praised his teammates for their performance in the keenly contested encounter.
“‘I’m proud of the team, it’s always difficult to play away from home, not the best conditions, the pitch was not good enough,” Troost-Ekong said after the game.
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”I think we put in a good performance, we created a lot of chances, we could have scored two,three four goals. I think we have to look at that objectively and say it was a positive.
“Now we have four points from our first two games, I think we should be happy.”
The Amahoro was full to capacity with the home fans rooting for their team.
Troost-Ekong said the atmosphere added more vigour to the game.
“I think we have experienced players, we have played in front of bigger crowds before. For me it makes the game lively. I enjoyed the energy,” the Al-Khaloood of Saudi player added.
“We worked hard to silence them, they booing was a sign we are doing well. We used that as motivation. Kudos to Rwanda, I think they set up their team well. They had a great game plan, but on a different day we could have scored plenty goals and win the game.
Read Also:2025 AFCONQ: Super Eagles Need Time To Gel Under Eguavoen –Ekpo
Troost-Ekong said the team will now shift attention to their next game against Libya.
“We continue, we said we want to qualify for the AFCON. We are on a course of doing that. Two positive results. Our next two games against Libya, we want to seal the deal,” he declared.
“We will go into those games with more seriousness. For now, we have to focus on our clubs, and back in October we hope everyone will be fit and give the coach a selection headache.”
By Adeboye Amosu
3 Comments
The truth is that with Paul Kagame, the Rwandan President and known warlord in the stadium, there was no way the ref would have allowed Nigeria to win. Even if we scored 3 legitimate goals (like the one that went in), they would all be disallowed. If he allowed any, he would have compensated Rwanda with a dubious penalty.
We still have a long way to go in Africa and I trust NFF not to lodge a complaint even if the ref threw the ball into our net and counted it for Rwanda.
What a daylight robbery! And Kagame thanked the ref from the stand at the end of the game, waving with a big smile at him and his countrymen. The ref should not forget to go and collect his thank you envelope at the presidential hotel this evening.
Hahahaha @Kel i agreed with you that is day light robbery the type Ghanian referee did in South Africa vs Senegal world cup qualifier that prompted Fifa to order for a replay. Africa has a long way to go
Interesting point you make here @ Kel.
Robbery in broad daylight. That referee needs to explain in detail why he disallowed a clear goal.
He go explain taya…no evidence.
CAF should investigate this game. Perhaps Rwanda need to be playing their home games elsewhere.