Former Nigeria defender and coach, Christian Chukwu, has hailed the resilience performance with which the Super Eagles earned an away draw against the Black Stars of Ghana in the first leg of their 2022 World Cup African qualifier playoffs on Friday.
The Super Eagles were held to a goalless draw by the Black Stars in Kumasi.
The star-studded Nigerian side played tenaciously, but could not put a goal past the Ghanaian goalkeeper inside the heavily packed Baba Yara Sports Stadium.
Francis Uzoho was called into action a number of times as the game progressed and Leicester City man, Ademola Lookman made his debut in the encounter.
However, Chukwu was impressed with the display of the Nigerian team in spite of the Black Stars’ home advantage.
Also Read – 2022 WCQ: ‘Why Black Stars Failed To Beat Nigeria In Kumasi’ —Ghana Coach, Addo
“I am happy with the Super Eagles’ show of resilience and the draw they got last night against the Black Stars of Ghana,” Chukwu told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.
“The Super Eagles took hold of the game from the start. They also took the game to the Black Stars’ quarters, pressured the Ghanaian side and made sure they remained in the defensive most times in the game.
“As a former coach and player, I know how hard it is to win a team on it’s home turf or even outplay a home team with an intimidating crowd of home supporters.
“I am proud of them as far as the match is concerned judging from the experience I have gathered over the years in football.”
The second leg will take place on Tuesday March 29 at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja.
34 Comments
Thanks Chairman. Voice that echoes what football is all about. Played it, won it, coached it and watched it for years. A big big congratulations to the SE, to CEREZO n crew n to Nigeria. Ghana is never an easy team. One of the traditional African powerhouses in football. So getting a draw in their so called slaughter slab, where if not for few missing details will could have won is really really commendable.
You guys are bunch of mediocres who knows little about football. Ghana is a big team on paper but what pedigree do they have since 1983? No single AFCON to their name since then.
Egypt went to Senegal an beat the AFCON Champion 1:0, Algeria and Tunisia who both performed woefully in the just concluded AFCON also beat their hosts 1:0 but here we are commending SE for playing a goalless draw with a team that couldn’t win a single match at the recently concluded AFCON. A team whom a 19 years old bit bench player in Roma is their main striker and their GK plays in the 4th tier league in England.
Let’s be real and call a spade a spade, Eguavoen got it wrong as always, with superstars playing in EPL, La Liga, Seria A, Ligue 1, CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AND Europa League regular payers cannot break down these pathetic Ghanaian players down but should be praised.
His tactics and personnels deployed let us down bi time
Just like Rohr got it wrong on many occasions even though I never considered him a bad coach Mr. No it all.
If Rohr got it wrong we will not be in this position in the Playoff about to qualify for Qatar at this moment, just pray that your CEREZO doesn’t destroy the great job that Rohr has done all this while like he did at AFCON 2022 with his R16 Exit, our worst AFCON record in 40 years
I will only start criticizing CEREZO or any other local coach after they might have been with the team for 5years without improvement. That’s how not to be a mediocre yeah.
Remove the Dr infront of ur name because u sound retarded!!
Ghana is a quarter finalist at the wc, which is the greatest theatre on earth
Such a useless, hollow dr!!
Only inferiority complex ll make a guy come on social forum adding Dr to his name!!
Useless bastard
@Selfmade King, your response here showed how demented and psychologically deranged you truly are.
Since you came on to this forum tabbing all sorts of nonsense, I never entertained you by responding to your numerous unintelligent and incomprehensible rubbish posted daily here, rather I just scroll through and pass jeje because your primitive rantings deserves no response.
However, your big hydrocephalic head that is filled with water and very little brain tissue won’t allow you to comprehend my comment above but rather show us that the Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy that you suffered at your birth has really damaged your brain beyond redemption
You said……”Remove the Dr infront of ur name because u sound retarded!!”……………..Tell me who is the retarded on here? You think it’s any easy task to become a doctor, and most importantly one that is a British Fellow of RCOG ? Try better next time
Ghana got to Q-Finals in 2010, never got out of group stage in 2014, didn’t qualify for 2018 edition and only qualified for this playoff with the aid of that Senegalese referee via a dubious penalty and surely on their way to missing out of 2022 edition of WC. So my brother, stop dwelling on past Glory, this trend showed a retrogressive team who are in no position to pose a meaningful threat to my dear SE.
I do know your identity though, surely we all know that you are not Ghanaian but a crazy 9ja nonentity who has been vomiting venomous biles on this forum since the prelude to this Playoff contest, soon you shall soon disappear from the face of this forum after Nigeria wallop your adopted BS (Black Stars or Bull Shit) by 4:0 in Abuja on Tuesday.
It is no coincidence that your erstwhile identity on this forum has since disappeared from this forum ever since @Selfmade KING/SLAVE appeared. Bloody smelly Shit!!!
@Dr. Bank, to u GR is a good coach correct? What happened against CAR in lagos? Can u compare that CAR team to this Ghana team? What about the Cape Verde side dat came to 9ja and got a draw? You are right player for player 9ja players play in bigger leagues but so does the ghanaian players as well. Some play in england, france, netherland, italy, portugal etc same as nigerian players, so i really don’t get ur point as regards being mediocre supporters. Moreover, egypt won Senegal at home not away. The only teams dat won away are Algeria against cameroon (whi took 3rd place) and Tunisia against Mali. Also ur argument dat due to ghana not winning a single game in Afcon meant they shouldnt have gotten a draw in Kumasi, algeria also didnt win a single game at the just concluded afcon but still went to cameroon and won there, since they didnt win any game at the afcon does dat make dem a bad team. Although ghana hasnt won anything for a very long time, they have been very close on numerous occadions. Ghana is neva a bad side even when they are not at dia best. I personally think we should give these guys some time to build the team same way GR was given time to build his team. I encourage Eguavoen and the rest of the coaching crew to go for refresher courses to help finetune their coaching skills as 9ja will be better for it. Just my opinion tho, we can agree to disagree.
Hmmm “…give them time to rebuild the team…” OK oh! So we fired a coach, who has been building the team for over 5 years, at the eve of AFCON and in the middle of WC qualifiers, so that another one can come in and rebuild the team. I thought the reason was to avoid disaster. At the moment one of the disasters has happened in January, let’s pray for the other disaster not to happen on Tuesday.
Egypt played and won at home , they are going to Senegal on Tuesday
You dey mind the guy? Dem plenty for here now, spewing misinformation just to make baseless point. Egyptian goal was even an own-goal. Senegal will destroy them in Dakar!
Oga, the match between Egypt and Senagal was played in Egypt. Egyptians were at home. Research well before posting.
By the way, Senegal will destroy Egypt in Dakar!
@ Dr Banks, I don’t think you know your football. Its unfortunate you are using afcon titles to measure ghana pedigree and trying to say that because we have not won anything since 82 we don’t have the pedigree. In any case we have won 4 titles and we did that way before even your first title. We have been in the finals in 92,2010,2015. We lost to ivory coast on penalties in 93 and 2015 and Egypt beat us 1-0, very late in the game. If you know your football and watched those games you will understand these games could have gone ghana’s way and the story will have been different. What I’m trying to say is that there were very small margins between the teams in the finals and so to say that we have not won anything since 82 so you want to disrespect us is very dangerous and you will live to regret it soon. Even you with your size and loud mouth have won the afcon just 3 times so learn to respect your seniors and people who are ahead of you.
Nearly doesn’t count my brother, to be a Champion you have to beat everyone else and be the best. If you are good enough you won’t need penalties but should’ve won at regulation time plus extra time
Such a piece of rat shit
stop given wrong info please Dr.Banks. Egypt beat Senegal yesterday but it was in Cairo; and not in Senegal. Thanks
People that knows the game have spoken. Not all those aturu that comment here
Thank you Chairman Chukwu. Your comment shows your deep knowledge of the game. This is different from the comments of backyard analysts condemning the team for an away draw of such magnitude. That is how to play an away game, especially when playing against a good team like Ghana. I am upbeat Nigeria will qualify ahead of Ghana come Tuesday. There is no cause for alarm.
Again, you will recall that our few away world cup qualifiers against Ghana has been like this, and I am foreseeing a repeat of what happened in 2002. The same way we went to play a 0-0 draw in Ghana and finished the job in Port Harcourt with 3-0 victory. We shall definitely be in Qatar. There is no cause for alarm!
Totally different circumstances. In 2002 we wouldn’t have gone to the World Cup whether we won or lost in Lagos , nobody in Ghana cared about that game, In fact Ghanaians wanted Nigeria to win and go to the World Cup rather than Liberia. 2002 and now is totally different, a scoring draw will take us to the World Cup so expect a very serious Ghana team
Lies bro. Ghana will never want to lose to Nigeria, never!
@isreal, that 2002 ghana team was entirely made up of hearts of oaks players. That was the time we were trying to organise the black star. The coach, late Jones Attuquayefio was the Head coach of the same team. We used those games to prepare for our qualification in 2006. There was no way you would have beaten a proper ghana
So the Ghana team Nigeria beat Ghana, at 2002 and 2006 Nations Cup were Sunyani or Oti Region??? Lol
*So the Black Stars team that Nigeria beat at 2002 and 2006 Nations Cup were from Sunyani or Oti Region?
Come what may it must end up on Tuesday I want the SE to play badly and win that’s all
I commend Mr. Augustine Eguavoen and our players for getting something from the game against Ghana yesterday. It was a hostile environment. Those already calling for his head or jumping ship, should try and be patient. Let’s remember he only started this job not long ago. Ghana may not have The Nations Cup since 1980, but they remain a formidable opponent especially when they come up against Nigeria. I believe they would have beaten The Comoros Island team at the last AFCON if their captain Andre Ayew was not sent off early in that game. That was a good result by Mr. Eguavoen and his team. By the way, Egypt did not beat Senegal away in Dakar yesterday. That game is yet to be played. Mr. Eguavoen did well, maybe not perfect under difficult conditions. For those clamoring for a foreign coach, we have had a good number of them in the past. They didn’t set the world on fire. Let us stop this self-immolation!
I’m really not sure why fans are blasting Eagles and making reference to Rohr in previous thread lol. Was it not the same Rohr that played boring football for five years? Was Rohr not the coach when Super Eagles disgracefully lost to Central Africa Republic? A country with almost insignificant football history coming to beat as at home? Was it not Rohr’s team that three away a four-goal-lead against Sierra Leone at home? Abegi.
For me, the Eagles did well to get a scoreless draw. Egypt (with all their stars) were spanked 6-1 at this same Kumasi stadium. In fact, how many times has Nigeria ever beaten Ghana at Kumasi stadium? Even Argentina or Brazil will find it difficult to defeat Ghana in Kumasi. Kumasi is like Anfield!
Though some players didn’t show up but I commend their courage and resilience. Victor Osimhen didn’t received much service but he kept fighting, that’s what I wanted to see.
The job is half-done. Whichever X1 Eguaveon chooses in Abuja should finish the job in front of our capacity crowd.
Christain Chukwu is right.
*threw away*
Rohr plays boring football according to you but always productive, if it weren’t for Rohr you will not be here playing Qualifying Playoff. Better pray make CEREZO no spoil the job way Rohr take him sweat do.
Rohr built a team to win AFCON but CEREZO come in and dambaru his hardworking to kick us out in R16, worst SE performance since 40 years ago
The Ghanaian will go home empty after the match on Tuesday. They have lost out already going to World Cup. Mr chairman, Nigerians agreed with you. A draw at home for Ghana, is a win for Super Eagle. All Egua has to do this time is, allow Akin Amoo to play at Abuja. God Bless Nigeria.
Point of correct, please. Ghana may not have won The Nations Cup since 1982……
Chairman is right.We only need to tweak some things to be able to teach the Ghanaians some football lessons in Abuja.
First, the gates of the stadium should be thrown opened for the fans.We need 60,000 fans cheering the eagles on.The stadiums in Kumasi, Cameroon, Bamako and Cairo was filled to the brim because the gates were opened for the fans free. I heard Amokachi saying that only 30,000 fans will be allowed into the stadium because of covid restrictions.I asked if he saw the numbers in the other stadium?
On the match itself, we have to come out to play while ensuring that the Ghanaians don’t take us by suprise.Ekong struggled to cope with the pace of the young Roma forward and was bailed out by Balogun a couple of times.Maybe the young Bassey can be deployed at that role.We saw how Bassey bullied and hustled him strength for strength when he came in.
Etebo and Onyeka should start while Aribo should be pushed to a more advanced role(AM) that is the role he thrived on at Rangers.
We need a twin strike force for the return leg.The second striker will feed off Osimhen constant Hustle.Im Kumasi, Osimhen was left to deal with the central defenders alone and so they can double team him easily since they don’t have to worry about another striker as Senior man was always very far off leaving Osimhen isolated.A big striker like Sadiq should start with Ighalo coming in when he tired out because of the constant running.
Chukwueze should drop to the bench with Lookman taking over.Simon need to be seriously talked to.
Tactically we also need to be more offensive from the blast of the whistle.The conservative approach deployed in Kumasi that allowed them to dominate the earlier part of the game should be discarded.We must score 2 goals in the first half to put the match to bed.
Black coaches only sabi 442 formation
Most of Ghana’s victory against Nigeria came through useless friendly games. In real competitions, Ghana has won 8 times while Nigeria won 6. There’s nothing much to brag about!