Former Nigeria international Ndubuisi Egbo created another history as he became the first-ever African coach to win a match in the UEFA Champions League, after KF Tirana beat Georgia’s Dinamo Tbilisi 2-0 away in the first qualifying round on Wednesday, Completesports.com reports.
A goal in each half from Agustin Torasso and Marsel Ismajlgeci secured the win in one-legged tie.
Torasso opened the scoring four minutes in added time in the first half before Ismajlgeci added the second goal on 86 minutes.
The win means Tirana will welcome 1991 Champions League winners Red Star Belgrade, in the second round of the qualifiers.
Tirana must go past Red Star Belgrade to get to the third round and a win against the Serbians will see them progress into the play-off round.
If they manage to get to the play-off round, a win for Tirana at this stage will see them qualify for the group stage proper.
Egbo made history with Tirana as he led them to the Albanian league title, becoming the first Nigerian and African coach to win a league title in a European topflight.
By James Agberebi
25 Comments
congratulation to Egbo and to Naijizi. i have always said it that we are the giant of africa in this game. we nor dey carry last. i am seeing a future super eagles coach in this man. these are the kind of assistants we need for rohr, not amateurs. it seems like he too have deeply following the eagles as he put up Gernot rohr formation in todays game, it was exact eagles present formation. and he won confidently, i hope NFF are watching. keep it up @egbo and tirana, up Naija
@ Collins id
I join you to celebrate this victory. Blood is thicker than water. This is one victory for all Nigerians. Kudos, Egbo!
@KangA, Grazies. as mr Egbo comes out of Giogia with flying colors yesterday. so shall your daughter graduate from Giogia with Flying colors. in Jesus name,Amen. Up Nigerians all over the world. Naija can never carry last.
Amen. Naija is a blessed race, really. We have the potential to turn things to gold. Egbo is a pacesetter and we’re all behind him.
I didnt want to be forward on how Egbo’s team lined out, before they will say I’m Rohr’s media hype man…but in truth you are not wrong in seeing the similarities with the way SE often lines up in recent times. Its all about efficiency and getting the job done by leveraging on your strengths and Egbo’s Tirana team last night got the job done without looking boring, relying on their pace and trickery upfront (with Torasa and Kobeena causing anxious moments for Tbilisi) backed by a very solid defensive foundation. Their central defense was so difficult to penetrate and they played narrow in the defense in order to force their opponents wide, knowing that the balls will still come back to the center where they will be taken care of by their own version of “oyinbo wall” who were always ready to put their bodies on the line (unlike a certain victor moses who was ‘big-boying’ with 4 minutes to qualifying for WC R16 and watched a defender ghost unmarked into the box to knock the SE out). To go away from home and defeat the host 0 – 2 in UEFA CL is not just by luck. The FK Tirana team I saw was one which did not have many high quality players but has put in plenty of hackwork in training…..even their set pieces showed they were well rehearsed from the training grounds. Egbo really made me proud from a coaching perspective and I can all but wish him the best of luck as he moves ahead.
These are the kinds of Asst Coaches we want for our SE…..one that inspires confidence that even when the head coach is not available…NO SHAKING…we go still dey carry go. Not this IT student that was foisted on us from Amaju’s Parlour. Imagine if Rohr is sick for our next AFCON qualifier double header against Seirra Leone or agaisnt Benin Republic…shey na Yobo we go carry our SE destiny give….???
Brazil once had Zagallo and Pierrera on the same bench……Imagine a SE technical crew of Rohr, Egbo, Amunike, Olofinjana, Rufai and Enyeama. #TooMuchConfidenceCrew. We will get there someday..!
… The first time I will agree with Dr Drey… We actually did not advance to second round at the expense of Argentina largely due to Victor Moses attitude… He was just ball watching the cross that Marcos Rojo latched on to… Victor Moses was so carefree sadly!
Dear Dr. Drey,
let me join you in congratulating Ndubisi Egbo as well. However, Ndubisi Egbo and Rohr are running their races, and we should respect their work and leave it at that. Rohr has enough assistants to tinker his team with. Let us all keep praying for a successful outing of our brother Egbo believing he will do us proud, and leave it at that.
Respectfully yours.
Dear Ya-Ya.
Your points are fully noted. If wishes were horses, beggars will ride. There is no harm in fantasizing. You become what you eventually dream of. I dream one day of the best of a crack technical squad that we can afford (irrespective of race or national) that will still retain its maximum effect even in the absence of any member of the set.
With kind regards….
To God be the glory. Congratulations Coach Egbo and the entire team.
And the jobless mr arm chair “gaudiola” will shamelessly look the other way and congratulate Arteta instead of his brother. Tomrrow nah they will start shouting “black lives matter” when they hate their fellow brothers with passion. Hypocrites every where. Congratulations, Egbo, u are just setting the standard for others (including those who think they know it all) to follow.
Heehehehe…twitter guadiolas dem. Always quick to commend Pep, Arteta and Tuchel on twitter….but has never for once offered a message of support to Egbo and Newton. Hypocrites dem….their jealousy even from their days in the National team is legendary…! Instead of all of them to rally round these 2 guys and even offer pro bono opposition scouting and analyses in order to help their brothers succeed knowing that the success of these ones will open more doors for the entire race of black coaches.
@drey, I’m dumb founded. Amokachi asked “why everywhere is so quiet” for this guy. Well, ur guess is as good as mine.
One would have expected Egbo’s AFCON 2000 and AFCON 2002 team mates like Finidi, Akuwegbu, Oliseh etc to bombard social media with congratulatory messages left right and center. Shame.
And later some people will come here and blame the white man for the black man’s woes whereas blacks are even their own worst enemies.
Yeah, they’ll come out with their usual “I couldn’t get the job bcs I’m black and black lives matter” garbage. How can black lives matter when they are full of hate and jealousy???? Blacks are the architect of their own problems. The reasons whites hate us is bcos we don’t love ourselves esp nigerians. Hence, black lives won’t matter until we start loving and supporting ourselves. If na to come and make allegations about salary or tell us why they can coach the eagles without pre requisite qualifications, na there u go see them. Even the ones wey their heads dy like opiora mango.
Congrats my brother Mr Egbo , you’ve done an excellent job!
We are hoping to see you replacing Rohr soon.
Oh…you are not replacing Rohr with yobo any longer….LMAO…!!!
Lol….. No mind those confused “Progressives”. Their heads are full of confusion. Lol…
He has better qualification than Rohr, instead of making him Rohr’s assistant he should be the main coach.
Though his time will come.
Congrats Egbo. But why all the noise and hype. He won against a less fancied team like them, nothing spectacular tirana did, they manage to take advantage of the errors committed by the opponents goal keeper, dinamo were just unlucky. Very funny the way some members are calling for him to be Rohrs assistant, please whats so spectacular that other coaches can not do. Until he gets to the qualifying stages then we can make case for him managing the national team. Even Eyimba will beat Tirana any day with a nigerian coach at the helms
No be only Eyinmba, you forgot to mention osun united or Aba FC.. Yeyenatu
Another Good News for our Goal-Keeping Department!
SEBASTIAN OSIGWE has now signed a 4-Year deal with Swiss League side FC Luzern. He already commenced training with the team as well. @CSN should please confirm the news on their website also.
Now options in the Goal Keeping Department getting tougher.
Uzoho – APOEL, Cyprus
Alampasu – Ventspil, Latvia
Okoye – Sparta Rotterdam, Netherlands
Akpeyi – Kazier Chiefs, RSA
Osigwe – FC Luzern, Switzerland
Uzoho – 21yrs – 1.96cm – APOEL
Alampasu -23yrs – 1.99 – Ventspils
Okoye – 20yrs – 1.98 – Sparta Rotterdam
Osigwe – 26yrs – 1.85m – FC Lugano
Add Adebayo Adeleye – 20yrs – 1.89m – Hapoel Katamon who had 15 clean sheets in 33 matches last season and then you know we are covered for the next decade to come. The days of Ezenwa and Akpeyi (Ezenwa in particular) in the SE are definitely numbered.
Brother are you saying that Alampasu(1.99m) is taller than Uzoho(1.96m)?. I doubt it!
Nor vex oga sir. Ngwa carry tape-rule go measure the 2 of them make we see who tall pass..lol
alampasu is quite taller than uzoho. i think Nigeria should work on uzoho alampasu and okoye. these hands are good enough. i think rohr have too much respect for age and experience which can be good and can also be detrimental to his team. he gave too much respect to v moses mikel and ighalo before and it wasnt the best for him. (they failed him both in wcup and afcon) though ighalo tries to make up after the afcon but it wasnt good enough for rohr when he suddenly retired thank God the man had better options, i think its hightime he lets go the old school. akpeyi, ezenwa should focus on club football with all due respect and lets focus on the young once (uzoho,alampasu okoye and osigwue) akpeyi is a good keeper and has giving to us his maximum like wise ezenwa we have seen their best and worst and we obviously are not satisfied with their best and we dont expect them to start growing from age 30. there for let them give way to the young once. no time to say no time. if ighalo can be forgoten by osihmen and iwobi was able to make us forget mikel. chukueze and kalu did same to moses and are even big threats to simon and musa, Ndidi and etebo made up easily for onazi. why cant the keeper do thesame? a man should not be greedy to let go of an old girlfriend when ur future lies with a new one. deley is dangerous it may affect the mental development of the upcoming young keepers who have silled a first choice position in european clubs. their hope and motivation also depend on the trust and focus that u give to them.