Joe Aribo hauled all the positive headlines after scoring on his second appearance for Nigeria with Brazil coming from behind to hold the Super Eagles to a 1-1 draw on Sunday night at the Singapore National Stadium, completesports.com reports.
It proved a fitting result for the battling Rohr’s men who have now heaped more pressure on the Selecao who have now gone four games without a win since winning the 2019 COPA America on home soil last July.
Aribo received well Moses Simon’s teasing pass inside the Brazilian box, shoved off his markers before finding the back of the net. That was exactly on 35th minute of the first half which the Nigerians stoutly held onto until half time.
Super Eagles were bold, bright, and daring in the opening stages. Brazil goalkeeper, Ederson was called up to show his stuff early on but the Selecao gradually came back into full dominion.
The five time World Champions bossed their young Africans with crisp, slow-paced game.
Francis Uzoho enjoyed tremendous cover from stand-in captain, William Troost Ekong, who time and again, blocked and stopped the daring South Americans, especially Firmino, Neymar and Arthur.
The Nigerians, for once, showed patience, organisation, shape and confidence in absorbing, soaking all the Brazilians threw at them.
But all that changed in the 35th minute. Iwobi connected a long ball from the right, shoved aside his markers before setting up debutant, Aribo, who zig-zagged his way into the box before releasing a righted effort into the bottom corner.
Incredible! Nigeria 1-0 up against the World football superpowers. And despite the shock lead, the Super Eagles refused to lose their shape, organisation and convenient ration.
Tite’s men, now clearly under immense pressure, refused to pull off the throttle even as the half time whistle came with Nigeria in the driving seat.
Tite altered his attacking strategy soon before the second period got underway. And expectedly, Brazil continued from where they left off in the previous period and clearly got the breakthrough just three minutes after the restart.
And it has to be Real Madrid strongman, Casemiro who hauled Brazil back into the game with a cool finish after the Nigerian defenders were found lost in their own box when the ball crashed against the crossbar.
Brazil came close to taking the lead for the first time in the game on 56th minute but Uzoho made a save of extraordinary quality, going down low and early enough to deny Coutinho.
Three minutes on, Casemiro headed against the crossbar from a Neymar lovely delivered corner kick with Uzoho landing wrongly to pick an injury.
He was consequently replaced by Maduka Okoye, making his debut for Nigeria.
Just after the ‘water break’, Brazil came close to taking the lead when they burst from the right flank but a split second touch on the ball by Awaziem saw the Brazilians earn their 7th corner kick on the night.
The Samba Boys were amazingly wasteful this half and that should be a worry for Tite.
As the stalemate continued and Brazil showing more urgency and drive for goal, Rohr withdrew Alex Iwobi for Ramon Azeez with just seven minutes remaining.
Related: Okoye Happy To Make Super Eagles Squad For Brazil Friendly
Chukwueze came close to restoring Nigeria’s lead on 86th minute with a rising strike from the near post but Brazil keeper, Ederon gathered on the second attempt.
35 Comments
Very encouraging game.
The Brazilians played with more passion and looked superior many times in the game, but we were not far behind.
My rating for the entire team: 7.5/10. That is a great rating when you consider how critical I am in such matters.
● Uzoho has truly come of age. He was lucky a few times, but overall, he was fantastic. In my opinion, he was the best Nigerian on the field of play today. So sorry for his injury.
● Aribo has proved with this game that his excellent performance in his debut against Ukraine was not as a result of beginner’s luck. We are soooooooo lucku to have him at such a time as this. He comes second behind Uzoho.
Hope we get better.
Congratulations Nigeria.
Where are those Brazilians complaining that African oppositions were too weak for them? They played two games against the so called weak oppositions and couldn’t even win one. What if they had met Algerua, the current African champions?
Yeye people.
Senegal and Nigeria are better than Algeria. They might slightly edge Algeria.
Brazil will beat Algeria hands down ,you think Algeria is better than Senegal and Nigeria ?
I Laff you
Wow good one though I didn’t watch the match but live blogging showed we did well. We are gradually getting there. This is Brazil we are talking about with all their super stars being held to a standstill. Nigeria we be very difficult to beat come 2022 world cup. Congrats boys!
*Will
The guys tried, I hope they have learned from Brazil too. This young squad will win accolades in the near future. Kudo to Rohr and his staff. More friendlies like this will improve the team the more.
What a reasonable being will do is to Appreciate the effort of this guys and then state where they can improve. This team played well today. The likes of ARIBO, Ajayi, Chukwueze, Uzoho, Simon, Oshimen and Ekong played really well. Not forgetting the hard tackling and attack minded AWAZIEM! The likes of Iwobi, Ndidi, Collins did try but weren’t at there best to me. Iwobi gave away the ball needlessly and Ndidi was very slow in releasing the ball when he ought to and was dispossessed plenty times. Collins of course showed he is not a good Man-marker like Awaziem as he has failed against Mahrez and today also he couldn’t match GABRIEL JESUS. Coach Rohr saw Iwobi was very tired and the midfield looks like its only ARIBO but went on to remove Oshimen that was a threat to the Brazilian defense. Why would he do that??? Had he been he even brought on a more better striker like probably Olayinka or Dennis it would have been better. He now brought on that chap that couldn’t even trap a ball. He also would have quickly brought on Azeez for Iwobi and Aribo pushes to No. 10 role and remove COLLINS for a better man marker in Ebuehi and later substitute the two wingers who were obviously getting tired in the 70th minutes and we would have won the game quite well.
Once again, Nice play Super Eagles. We are now gaining our respect back. Even Brazil no say na God save them today. My Sincere Wishes to Uzoho who was outstanding today. Quick Recovery bro. Nice debut Maduka Okoye.
#Hail Coach Rohr
#Brazil Danced Samba
#Fire ONUACHU out of Super Eagles ASAP
GOD BLESS NIGERIA
I m sure if chukwueze have scored from the headed ball from onuachu in the 18.yard box. Onuachu would be in good books of all people watching the game.
what a game. Great organization and resilience from the Nigerian side. with players like aribo, uzoho, ndidi, osihimen, chukwueze, Ajayi, Collins and of course the captain ekong and others the future is bright. We need more friendly games against tough opponents such as Belgium and Holland.
Good game!!!? Can u see what’s happening, the eagles are improving tremendously, it’s very remarkable and should be maintained. Now, we are now getting our confidence back, daring to to face any team in the world. To get a draw against a team like Brazil no be beans. In addition, we got the draw through a well worked goal not like the Senegalese that got theirs through a spot kick. We are beginning to turn heads in the world again, now looked upon as a tough opposition and no longer push overs as was the case before. On a very good day, this Brazilian team would have beaten us black and blue but we gave them a good fight. Can u guys see what most of us were clamouring for??, patience and continuity. We couldn’t have gotten to this level if rohr was sacked out of senseless pressure and wickedness. Nigeria is becoming a powerful brand in the world of football again as was the case in 1994. Uzoho has really improved remarkably, I hope the injury he sustained is not that serious. The replacement seems to really have what it takes to stand in for uzoho when he’s not around. He was confident enough to deal with balls in his vital area. Troost Ekong has really shown himself to be a world class player, very clinical in his defending and seems to have this command over the team as the captain, good performance. Awaziem was really spectacular today and really paired very well with Ekong. Aribo is really a world class player and seems to confidenlty hold the ball in the midfield and supply very important passes to strikers, what a great discovery. Onuachu needs to do more to justify his place in the green, hasn’t really done much. He seems to lose balls carelessly, not good for a striker but overall,a very good performance by the boys not leaving out Ndidi and Collins who were superb. Chukwueze was a hand full for the Brazilians. Nice game boys, this is a team for the future. Let us give rohr all the moral and material support that he needs to take us to greater heights in the near future.
For me i think ndidi is part of the problem. Rohr should give him competition there by bringing in azubuike. K nwakali. Onazi. These guys plays like etebo and some of them offer more in the midfield. I think iwobi is inreplacable exept ebere of qpr is invited. U people forgot so soon how iwobi scores thesame goal against cameroun argentina zambia. Stop critisizin that guy he is still young and will get better
I know there will be a rematch. Brazilian will not sleep tonIght
No be lie. Automatically, dem must rematch Senegal too.
If you see SE make you dey run . the boys play better ball today. Abeg make una no vex oooo, if Mr Rohr resigne NFF pinnick should be fire immediately because he refused to pay the man . thank you Aribo God bless you . I was at the stadium Singapore never support SE . the boys try
Great game. Thank God we have Joe Aribo…..
TEAM A
. Man City
.SauPaulo, PSG, PSG, Athletico Madrid
. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Gremio
. PSG, Liverpool, Man city
.
. VS
.
TEAM B
.
. Nantes, Villarreal, Lille
. Rangers, Everton FC, Leicester city
. Paderborn, Udinese, Westbrom, Leganes
. Omonia Nicosia
At the end of full time
Goals 1:1
SOT 6:5.
Anyone that cannot at the least give kudos or appreciate Team B can go an wash his face with peppersoup.
I didn’t ask the permission of Mr. Hush to post his comments so I hope he will forgive me for this. He highlighted something I said earlier: the Brazilians played with more passion and desire.
PLEASE READ:
Mr Hush 29 mins ago
A good game..a fair result.
Though from the tactical approach seems Brazil wanted the win more and Nigeria just all around playing for a draw..
In my humble opinion, though respect is needed in the game but too much respect is cowardice and that wouldn’t get you far.Nigeria today showed too much respect and were too conservative with their approach,which for me always plays against us ,and such approach is not surprising to me due to the fact that,we all know this is Rohr’s only tactics.
It is quite noticeable that no matter which team Rohr come against ,he always tend to be conservative with his approach,and so rigid to change.His inflexibility has always cost us matches we are on the ascendency or matches we could have played safer high up the pitch. And such showed in this match.
Yes, it is Brazil but this is the same Brazil; Senegal, Peru and Colombia all respected but were brave enough to be flexible with their approach and still came out with favourable results.
Rohr man management is top notch; but his tactical ability is inept,it is totally flawed and short sighted in today’s game. We can’t keep playing a drab conservative defensive style of game; we would always concede goals by this approach. We have conceded goals in 5 out of our last 6 matches; our only saviour is that we have a good attack that scores too. That means our approach to the game must be on the front foot.Simply play to your strength..our strength..ATTACK..
Well, i can’t be Oliver Twist , so grateful the boys did good to get us this draw.
From today’s game.my own assessment.
Positives: Ekong, Ajayi, Awaziem(good defensively,terrible attacking), Ndidi, Osimhen ,Samu, Moses, Aribo..
Middle of the lane: Uzoho, Collins( Tried but need to do more and can be easily replaced if we find a better option).
Negatives: Onuachu, Iwobi( needs competition)
Need further evaluation: Azeez, Olayinka,Okoye, Dennis .
Just my take
Mr man, please keep quiet for you don’t know anything about football.
PeePee is peeing in his pants! I quoted Mr Hush, but what can anyone quote you for? Nothing.
Unintelligent and uncultured people like you cannot articulate an opinion. All they can do is use abusive words. Read my first comment on this page and learn how to express yourself in a civil manner.
Please return your mother’s phone to her and go and do your homework. Tomorrow is Monday and you have to be in school!
Silly boy.
@oakfield my Broda indeed you can’t have ‘GOOD-LUCK’ without ‘PATIENTS’ IF them like make them go ask JONATHAN!!!
I’m impressed, very impressed by the result. But about this team, I have a few things to say.
I’ve noticed in many matches played under Rohr that the team leaves too much space for the opponents to explore. Are they really afraid to mark? It’s been a recurring decimal, and it’s like the coach doesn’t realize how much this hurts the team.
We lost against Argentina (@ Russia 2018)and Algeria (@ 2019 AFCON), two crucial matches, because of this. Against Ukraine and Brazil, we gave away possession so easily and the results could have been a lot worse but for the brilliance of Uzoho, the constant probing of Osimhen, Chukwueze, Kalu, Moses and Aribo and of course, mother luck
We hardly touch our opponents until they get close to our box.
Our bench too doesn’t really inspire confidence in some departments. When Uzoho got injured , I was like, who would come on to replace him? Ezenwa that hasn’t being in goal for months or Okoye, who is completely new in the team?
When he took off Iwobi, I knew it would be impossible to make a like-for-like substitution because we currently have only two creative midfielders (Aribo and Iwobi) in the team. Azeez that came in isn’t a playmaker.
I hope Rohr has learnt one or two things from this match. Going forward , the team has fantastic players that can hurt any opponent. But our marking and defending have being quite appalling. Reason we find it difficult winning matches against top teams. It’s so bad that I always feel we will concede each time we score! It happened against Ukraine and now Brazil. We could have easily won these two matches with more discipline.
I’m a big fan of Genot Rohr, but he needs to look into the team’s tactical discipline. We need more men behind the ball, fight and make opponents sweat for every pass they make. Allowing them to toss us around in the course of a match will always limit what we can achieve as a team. With the materials have, only few teams are better in the world right. But we need to work on our tactical discipline!!
Bro not just Rohr, it has always been the case with the Super Eagles to leave space behind. Even at the 1996 Olympics it was the same only that we outscored our opponents.
@PapaFem and Mr. Hush, kudos to you guys. To be honest with ourselves, Did Super Eagles really playing to their capacity against Brazil? Absolutely no.
Were they expressing themselves in that encounter? No.
Why? Lack of ideas, confidence, late subs and wrong tactics were the main problem of the team against the Selecao team.
About rating the team? I don’t want to go there because we didn’t play in that match but we were only defending. So what do we rating then?
Jo Bonfrere and Westerhof deserves a standing ovation from all of us.
At worst if NFF refused to call our ex players on board then, they should go for Jo or Westerhof to assist Oga Rohr. That is another option. I have said my own o before it is too late. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
Hehehehehehe…he’s looking for supporters. LMAO
Every other pperson said they enjoyed the match, Africa Coach of the Year said he didnt….Lolz.
Biko, dont rate the team o…..we dont need your rating…you will tell me if the 5 saves that Ederson made in the match was because we were defending.
The match stats said Shots on target Bra 6:5 Nig, yet oversabi dem say we no attack. Some people obviously dont know the difference between ceding possession to an opponent and outright packing of the bus….Lolz.
Ure really a miserable good for nothing sick man. Ure such a disgrace to ur generation and for always discrediting other people’s efforts and achievements out of shear wickedness and hatred , nothing good will ever come ur way. I can imagine the kind of miserable life ure living now bcs of this. Na ur type Dy do juju against him people.
Papafem did you just we could have easily won against Brazil… Do we know Brazil is presently number3 in the world and recently won copa America.. They were not happy drawing Senegal and wanted a win against Nigeria at all cost, did you see the way they rejoice scoring their equalizing goal.. Plz let us take it easy on this team , let not forget some years back we couldn’t qualify for common afcon and that same team drawing Brazil and some are saying we should have won easily.
For me it was a wonderful match, we didn’t have musa, Sam Kalu, etebo, yet we troubled Brazil, this boys are good, very soon other tops sides would be lining up to plsy the super eagles.
My man of the match was awaziem, nothing goes past him, Brazil had to redirect their play on the left where it became obvious Collin is a weak man marking, but you wouldn’t blame, Collins has played more in lower leagues than in top division and he is all we’ve got for now.
I was so surprised to read comments from those wanting early changes, against Ukraine rohn brought in some player and he lost his 2 goals advantage, if he had done same together Brazil would have spelled Nigeria cos i saw fire in their eyes, a team that has not won a single match after copa America drawing with a West African side, even when uzoho was down in pain they kept shooting at the goal post to show how angry they were.
In the last FIFA ranking Brazil lost so many points and moved down and the same would happen when the new ranking would be ranking yet people are not satisfied with our team.. Uzoho gave Nigeria his leg today that injury would put him on the testament table for months cos he twisted his knee joint.. Wonderful from our boys
Even the commentators said the Nigeria team played defensive football in the second half. In friendly matches top teams in the world wants teams that can balance between offensive and defensive if not pure offensive because that’s what their fans want to see to be entertained. Nigeria should learn to play attacking football while not being careless at the back. Very soon if we can add flair to our attacking football because we have the players then top European teams will want to play us . The coach is doing well but I believe he is still under utilizing the offensive threat of our players. Brazil that I saw today would find it difficult to stop our attacking football if we had Kalu and the coach is not being cautious.
Very soon if we can add flair to our attacking football because we have the players then top European teams will want to play us…….
Oga…did you say very soon…??? Its like you forgot that we were jejely sitting outside our face me i face you NFF glass house after NEPA took light, when Brazil and Ukraine came to invite us to play against them.
If we didnt have those ingredients in our game already, I dont think they would have done so. And we even made them sweat before they could go home with a draw in both matches….not even goalless draws o. Score draws, with both teams having to dig deep against us to come from behind.
we must times are too quick to forget who played against, our bench was flat, we had just Emma Bonaventure and the isabor guy who got invited through means we don’t understand.
With the team we had we don’t deserve to draw Brazil, we had a very weak bench, and the coach knew making substitution would be inviting suicide to his team, yet we draw.
I’m so proud of this team, defending a team as Brazil shows our defense is top class at the moments and can compete with any team in the world, timori can’t even bench any of these guys, the areas we need reenforement is attacking midfield and left back and honestly we don’t have any good option than to manage what we have cos we ain’t in that level yet
Oga leave them. They wanted the entire engine room of the team be replaced with players who have NEVER played together before against a team that has been largely unchanged since winning COPA AMERICA.
Honestly, I would love to see the many coaches on these forum even coach a secondary school team…..lets even see who some of these their superfluous suggestions will look like in real time.
After critics will say Rohr is bad, this man has structured this team, and he has passion for the country.
Dr drey I feel many of us have forgotten where we were before rohn came in.. One French coach like that had already reflected Nigeria cos we were lowly ranked..but see us drawing Brazil yet people are saying we should have destroyed Brazil.
A team with a weak bench, rohn for me is a magician, imagine having Bonaventure with only one cap, maduka okoye zero cap, azzez last game 5 years ago and onuachu the tall morun, not forgetting olayinka zero cap on your bench playing Brazil and still drew the game.. We should be clapping for the coach.. Brazil had neymer 101 cap, cotinho, Dani ayez, thaigo Silva, firmino etc and they could not get clean changes..
Those boys have done well plz, not everyteam Can play defensive game against them and would survive not getting hammered.
Bros i feel you. Naija fans like living in a fantasy world. The boys were fantastic.
Eagles were good in that game. Expectedly no one even remembered SEMI AJAYI who stood like pillar alongside Ekong & Awaziem to neutralize the fiery attacks of the Samba Boys.
Kudos Rohr
Kudos Super Eagles
Kudos Nigeria