Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio has celebrated the Leone Stars’ shock 4-4 draw against the Super Eagles, in Friday’s 2021 AFCON qualifiers in Benin.
The Eagles marked a dominant first half display against the Leone Stars with a 4-0 lead.
Late in the first half the Leone Stars pulled a goal back before going on to complete the fightback in the second half.
Also Read: Sierra Leone FA President: We’d Pity Super Eagles By Allowing Them Score One Goal In Freetown
Reacting to the result Bio praised the Leone Stars for refusing to accept defeat.
“Brave Lion hearts, Our Leone Stars!” Bio wrote on his verified Twitter handle.
“Leveling up from 4-0 to 4-4 shows we are not taking defeat this time. You have made us proud, Leone Stars.”
Both teams will meet again on Tuesday in the second leg in Freetown.
The Leone Stars will be looking to record their first win in the group while a win for the Eagles will seal qualification for the AFCON.
By James Agberebi
11 Comments
just imagine the nonsense
The political slogan that led to obaseki second tenure was the cos of eagles draw at ogbe stadium. The 4+4 togba,(4+4 must complete) was chanted numerous times in that stadium during the last political campaign. even as recent as a day before the match, which was his second inauguration people where still shouting 4+4 gbane,(4+4 is completed) the spirit of 4+4 was still very much alive in the stadium during eagles match and it has cought up with the eagles 4 4 draw which was obviously completed as demanded by the people, no more need to blame Rohr and his players it wasn’t their fault it was met to be 4+4 hahahaha the gods must be crazy. lol.
Hahahahahaha…CollinsID…Principal is calling you..!
S/L is just short of declaring a National Holiday for drawing the SE in Nigeria! It is as if they have won the WC. They are not saying a word about qualifying for AFCON.
If anybody get time, please watch an interview with this president in “talk to Akjazeera” from his utterances u will realize that this guy has huge plans for SL, he was constantly talking about human capital development and free education, fighting corruption. I know most African leaders sell the same message when they come in but this guy just sounds and looks genuine to me. Highly intelligent guy, young and vibrant, here is how a president should sound. I know this is a sports forum but I just had to share the link
https://youtu.be/d6EULG6o97Q
E never collect the injection wey dem dey collect when the reach power naim make….lolz. Wait till e go do in 1st ‘medical checkup’. Nor be Africa..? Even George Weah wey we think say na one of we own say na different breed, go ask of im matter from Liberians wey base for liberia.
Drey my broda na my fear be dat ooo, the resources wen SL get nor be small tin ooo. Diamond yakpa for dia but the people nor fit find foid eat. So pathetic wetin our leaders dey do. Shoo, even Paul Weah too?
Abundance of resources is not abundance of wealth…especially in Africa. There is no country in Africa that does not have abundance of resources for Africa to be poor. But some people will blame slave trade and colonialism even in the year 2020. Whites are not superior to blacks but countries with no natural resources in other climes are prospering better than even oil producing countries in Africa.
super chickens. you guys should not worry Christmas is around the corner we go still chop all of Una.
While the players’ professionalism and attitude must be questioned, Rohr must also take a considerable portion of the blame.
Time and again his substitutions have proved ineffective and have too regularly appeared to cost Nigeria momentum and control in a match, rather than helping the Eagles consolidate their authority and continue to take the game to opposition.
It was as clear as day, as Friday’s match swung in the Leone Stars’ favour, that Nigeria’s midfield was labouring, yet Rohr watched on helplessly, making tweaks and cosmetic realignments, rather than fixing the gaping hole in the hear of the team.
Certainly, it can be hard to find too much logic in some of Rohr’s substitutions, and sometimes, his changes appear to be made just for the sake of it.
Why, for example, remove the influential Samuel Chukwueze, whose movement and running gave the Leone Stars something to be worried about behind their defence?
Why remove Leon Balogun for Semi Ajayi? Why introduce strikers Paul Onuachu and Kelechi Iheanacho when the midfield requires bolstering?
The substitutions themselves are problematic, as are the timings of the changes…Rohr dithers, watching on as Rome burns, when a proactive approach is required.
Then, the broader squad selection must also be questioned.
In the past, we’ve seen Nigeria setting themselves up to fail, rather than succeed, and it feels as though the same is happening again with Rohr.
Many eyebrows were raised when the German coach named four midfielders—one of whom was right-back Tyronne Ebuehi—in his squad for the double-header against the Leone Stars.
It was hard to see, without injured Wilfried Ndidi, who would offer the defensive rigour in the heart of the park, and there were always going to be a certain issue of the practicality of a Joe Aribo-Oghenkaro Etebo midfield pairing.
Unsurprisingly, both of these two problems—both very predictable—came home to roost for the Super Eagles, as the duo in the centre were targeted and ultimately overrun as the contest went on.
Why replace injured winger Moses Simon with Onuachu?
Why replace Frank Onyeka with Shehu Abdullahi?
Why invite two right-backs and then play centre-back Kevin Akpoguma in that position?
Was there no place for Ramon Azeez, Kelechi Nwakali, Mikel Agu, Uche Agbo, Anderson Esiti or Okechukwu Azubuike?
Perhaps they haven’t always impressed with the national side, but any of them should be a competent option—should Etebo tire or get injured, say—against a side ranked 120th in the world.
These are all questions, perhaps, that the NFF and Amaju Pinnick should have been asking Rohr and his team when federation officials called for a summit on Saturday morning to understand what went wrong in the 4-4 draw.
The federation also have some questions to answer, specifically about the decision to offer Rohr a new contract in May 2020—ahead of the World Cup, before the Eagles’ underwhelming performance and first-round exit at the grandest stage of all.
While Rohr’s handling of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign—after being drawn with 2012, 2017 and 2019 Africa Cup of Nations champions Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria—was a fine achievement for a progressive, adventurous side, the West African giants haven’t built on the promise of those years.
The coach’s desire to constantly cut the average age of the side, and oversee consistent influxes of new faces may have resulted in Nigeria being the youngest squad at the 2018 World Cup, but has it also denied the Eagles of some critical experience and calming older heads who can help the team get through difficult periods.
Introducing youth around a spine of Ndidi, John Obi Mikel and Odion Ighalo was one thing, but with the three of them absent, Rohr’s Super Eagles project may be entering it’s terminal phase.
Extract from goal.com
@babad, nice write up, the only areas I would disagree with you are
Ighalo hasn’t played fir Man United for a long time so he can’t be match fit but a counter argument will b, has Musa played as well? Which is a very valid point but we can’t have 2 players that haven’t been active for their teams in the SE. mikels case is different tho, he could be brought in due to our lack of depth in dat department considering he is playing regularly. His experience would have helped in a game like frisays and possibly the game to come on Tuesday. But the problem with bringing back someone like Mikel, will he be a starter? can he agree to play 2nd fiddle to younger midfielders like Aribo and Iwobi? Can he agree to do the dirty job he does for Stokes in SE? Would he agree that he won’t wear the captain armband? More importantly sef, is he willing to come back to the SE?
Also u mentioned some midfielders, Azubuike and Azeez are still out injured if am not mistaken. Nwakali is only getting few minutes here and there. I personally would have invited him as we were thin in dat department when Simon moses and omeruo pulled out. If Mikel Agu or Agbo or Esiti were invited, most of us would say GR is clueless that we have seen enough of Agu to know he isn’t SE material but in reality this was a game an Agu would have been very important. You up there said Onuachu is a flop in SE and u don’t understand why he keeps getting invited, thats thesame argument people including myself will say about Agu, since he hasn’t performed amiably in the SE when invited, maybe due to the gaffer playing him out of position. Agu made it clear in an interview that his preferred role is DM, he may excel there if that’s where he is best at. As for Esiti and Agbo, do u know what league they play for? I personally do not know.
With all the midfielders u mentioned plus the ones already invited would be like 9 and we have not added Ndidi (when he get fit), or Ejaria after he switch is finalized. But u know normally going by 2 players per position we need only 6 (2DM,2CM, and 2AM). Except if you mean when playing against African opposition we use only certain players so the likes of Aribo, Iwobi shouldn’t be invited as to be able to play tge likes of Agu, Agbo, Esiti? That could be a plan tho afterall, the team Belgium used against England yesterday was completely different from the team that executed their friendly games. But bcos results are always very important to 9ja fans, the coach can’t implement such ideas. I think 9ja could raise at least 4 teams not including a home-based team. Just that we aren’t patient bcos as soon as we lose games there will be a call for tge coaches head even tho the coach himself isn’t helping matters too. The only way he can do what teams like Germany, Belgium, France, England or Spain are doing (fielding different teams for friendly and real games) without complaints from fans is by winning. Tge only way Martinez of Belgium can afford to change all 11 1st teasers is bcos out of 51 games played Belgium has won 40, lost 4 and drawn 6, the winning % is there for you to see, even when he makes those wholesale changes tge team doesn’t look out of source. Just my opinion