Odion Ighalo scored his fifth goal of AFCON 2019 in the Third-Place match against Tunisia to set himself firmly in the race for the tournament’s top scorer award and the third minute strike proved just enough for the Super Eagles to win their 8th AFCON bronze medal, Completesports.com reports.
Ola Aina accelerated down the left and delivered a low cross into the area but the Tunisian goalkeeper spilled the ball and it eluded his defender for Ighalo to poke home.
Ighalo later sustained an injury at the stroke of half time and made a premature exit. He was replaced by Victor Osimhen for the second half.
The Super Eagles dominated the first period but could not take advantage of their possession to double their lead.
After the break,the Carthage Eagles poured out in numbers, encamping in the Nigerian area in a bid to draw level.
But it was Samuel Chukwueze who had the best chance of the half to increase the Super Eagles lead on 63 minutes. The Villarreal winger’s terrific shot from outside the box was finger-tipped into corner by the full stretched Tunisian goalkeeper.
The Super Eagles again came close to scoring a second goal. Samuel Kalu who had just come on for Samuel Chukwueze fired a free-kick from distance only for the goalkeeper to tip the looping ball over for a corner-kick.
It was Kalu’s first contribution in the game. He was to test the goalkeeper again on the dot of time with a free-kick on the edge of the box but the goaltender went down enough to make a save.
By Adeboye Amosu (pix: by Ganiyu Yusuf) in Cairo
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COMMENTS
Flashes of brillance and hope. Wonderful team, u win some, u lose some, u gain experience, learn lessons and move on. Mahrez said, this team is meant for the future if kept intact and it’s nothing but the truth. Congrats to the super eagles, congrats to rohr, next try would bring home the cup. Not a bad record for him.
Nigerians every where are extremely proud of this 2019 team. They represented the best that the Nation is happy with. Lets hope the coach will stay when he made his announcement. Nigerians wants him to stay. He is a good coach. If he should go, we don’t want the local hungry village headmaster coach to take his place. The NFF should go for some one far better than Rohr to take his place.
Speak for yourself man!!
We want Rohr out
Go pursue am na, mumu. Rohr all the way! You can get sniper if you don’t like it that way alaye.
Yes oh rohr all the way.
Nigeria’s record in AFCON, win, win, loss, win, win, Loss, win.
That’s 5 wins and two losses (played 7, won 5 (15 points)). Odion Ighalo top scorer in the qualifiers, is now on course to be top scorer in the tournament itself. he has equaled Rashidi Yekini as only the second Nigerian to score 5 goals in AFCON. Only if Mane of Senegal(3 goals) and Ounas of Algeria(3 goals) score two goals will they catch him to share the prize and an unlikely hat trick to snatch the prize.
Have we done well? Indeed. For all the slander and abuse the players, coach and the team got, majority of Nigerians are proud.
There will be changes to the squad going forward, with Shehu Abdullahi likely to make way for Tyrone Ebuehi, Mikel retiring and probably Azubuike stepping up, Ighalo retiring and maybe Stephen Odey given a chance. left to see also if Anthony Nwakaeme is given a chance and if we can get a creative/attacking midfielder to take john Ogu’s place in the squad.
All in all a great year for the Super Eagles since the world cup last year. Moving from 7th in Africa past Congo, Ghana, Morocco and Cameroon to 3rd in Africa. With this victory we cannot be caught by Algeria who will probably move up to 4th or 5th if they win on Friday. Crucially we will move to within touching distance with second placed Tunisia who only managed 3 draws, two wins and two loses (9 points).
All in all we have made progress and met our potential. What requires to be done now, is to set targets for the next year with the world cup qualifiers coming up towards the end of the year, qualify for the Olympics and look towards a good footing for AFCON 2021
This match has settled the argument on who is the best striker in Nigeria now which is just ighalo which he has proven no wonder rohr always use him ,i wish rohr does not go so that he can work more on the team ready for the next nations cup and world cup. we will have a team within 2 years more if this man is retained.
This rohr is a good coach i just discovered why he used uzoho at the world cup because of his height and grip of the ball my people lets give rohr a chance he will deliver soonest.
Let the coach continue his good work. NFF beg this man not to resign please he has done well
Ighalo is best in African. From the qualifier to the main tournament, everywhere stew . up eagles. If this coach resign hmmmmm. Because I know NFF will not sack him . please coach ignore your criticism move on with the eagles
My chairman pinnick hope to meet you in sapele celebrate our third place. You have done well we love you
“Ola Aina accelerated down the left and delivered a low cross into the area but the Tunisian goalkeeper spilled the ball and it eluded his defender for Ighalo to poke home.”
NB:
It was not Ola Aina but Jamilu Collins.
So is this error enough for me to say CSN must go?
Lol!!! Abi o
Why will CSN go? It’s an observation.
Congratulations Super Eagles and Nigeria! You have done well, given the age and experience of the bulk of the team. I love your balanced overview/analysis @BigD. Always spot on. Same with some of my pals up there, Oakfield, Edoman and co. And to add a personal observation from yesterday: Uzoho may not be the finished article, but the potentials are undeniable.
Great to see CSN have also upped their game with some upgrades on their website with the ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ buttons/widgets add-ons (as clamoured), so the site visitors can upvote or downvote a comment and everyone can see the popularity of his/her views or comments (*winks* at CSN’s number one sparring mates, Omo9ja and Dr.Drey. Lol). I already upvoted some comments above. They’ve also changed their favicon and comment fonts. Impressive!
With a 3rd place finish in AFCON 2019, the Super Eagles have done well. In 1990, we settled for silver; 1992, bronze and 1994, gold. There was a progression of that team. This current team should be kept but with a refurbishment.
Uzoho should have kept the goal all through the tournament but the coaches knew best. He looked confident. He is still young and promising. Osimhen came on at last. With that, it means all our lads had a taste of AFCON 2019. Osimhen wasn’t bad and shown some brilliance at goal.
The team is young. I hope some of the older lads will give way for the young ones beaming with quality, confidence and enthusiasm to step in. Rohr should please not resign. Friendlies must be played to gel the team. A national plan should be put in place for 2020 Olympics football team, 2021 AFCON and 2022 World Cup with some of the team’s players in focus. There is no time to waste. The time to act is now because the future is here!
CSN, the upgrade is beautiful and highly welcomed. Please, upgrade the name and email section to avoid always entering name and email each time one comments. It is boring doing that all the time.
A registration can be reuired so that there will be no need entering name and email all the time. Thanks!
Ighalo is not good…ighalo has no business in this team….ighalo is not a striker…..ighalo is useless….Ighalo doesnt know how to get behind the defenders….ighalo dis…ighalo that..!
Abeg wia dem dey now…?? All of dem don run enter dia coven. Rejected stone is now the corner stone.
12 goals in 12 matches in 1 year…..top scorer in qualifiers….top scorer in main competition…?
Please who is the most prolific striker in Africa at the moment…!
Those who have been trashing this young man should be humble enough to come online here and apologies to him, same way they came online to pour insults on him.