The Olympic Eagles rallied back from a goal down to beat Zambia 3-1 in their second Group B game of the 2019 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations at the Al Salam Stadium on Tuesday night , reports Completesports.com.
It was a remarkable performance from the Nigerian lads who bounced back from the 1-0 loss to Cote d’l lvoire in their first game.
Zambia went into the lead in the 11th minute after Patson Daka fired the ball beyond Adamu Abubakar.
The lead lasted only six minutes before Orji Okonkwo equalised for Nigeria from a corner kick.
Stephen Bitok was booked for a foul around the Nigeria box in the 21st minute as the Eagles struggled to cope with the pace of of Zambia’s talisman Fashion Sakala.
Taiwo Awoniyi directed a weak header at the Zambia goalkeeper towards the end of the first half, while Zambia responded with a fine effort which was brilliantly saved by Abubakar.
The pattern of play continued after the break with both teams attacking at every opportunity.
Goal scorer, Okonkwo was replaced by Sunday Faleye in the 62nd minute after picking up an injury.
Nigeria took the lead for the first time in the game in the 65th minute after Kelechi Nwakali neatly placed a free kick from the edge of the box into the net.
Nwakali was replaced by Aliyu Adamu 14 minutes from time as the Nigerians adopted a more defensive approach in the later part of the game.
Awoniyi scored the third goal for Nigeria in added time.
In the other game in the group, South Africa edged out Cote d’l voire 1-0.
Imama Amapakabo’s charges will face South Africa in their final Group B on Friday.
By Adeboye Amosu
21 Comments
Even though we won our play was poor the passing,cross and decision making is just too pathetic. I don’t know but the new minister should task the NFF to let our coaches give us an hint of their game plan because right now majority of our coaches are clueless.
Cut this boys some slack please.Coming from a goal down to score three goals in a tension soaked match as this is never a walk in the park.The pressure of bouncing back after the lose in their first game is enough to unbalance their play.
However,i give them credit for this great come back victory,and has everything to play for against South Africa.The team played well and were the better side aside some misplaced passes every now and again i still will laud the lads for a spirited performance.
Best of luck boys!hoping you show similar response against South Africa and beyond.
Zambia had half of their national team and u20 team that did well at thenwyc few years ago….our team was hurriedly assembled. Let’s give credit and respect to Zambia. We won.
It’s not the first time we are winning a football match let’s point out what must be done before we start biting our nails. Lots of teams have broken our hearts like the u17 u20 and so on losing vital matches after wobbling out of their respective groups.
I believe we should be more sensitized by now because nobody is downplaying anyone here!
This is what my mind told me the result was going to be , even the scorers and sequence of scoring.
Okonkwo
Nwakali
Awoniyi
I pray they win the next two matches and qualify for the Olympics.
But if we hope to win the Gold at the Olympics, then Rohr and Amuneke must lead this team and we should utilise ALL our eligible SE players, Uzohor, Okoye, Awaziem, Chukweze,Moses, Onyekuru, etc.
This is the right opportunity to win the Olympics again and proceed with the team to challenge for the world cup in 2022
we a better coaches that can be able to handle that team,someone like rohr or even amuneke.guy nah true talk you talk.
I agree
i don’t like that coach imama.we got a better coaches in nigeria here that can handle that dream team.they are many here in this country then why imama amamakpo
Great game. But the only excuse i can give is because the team hasn’t played together. Every one was pick late. No time to train. Hopefully they win the ticket
I WATCHED THE GAME THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD WE DID NOT PLAY WELL FORGET THE FACT THAT WE HAD TO COME BACK TO WIN THE MATCH. OUR BOYS ARE HEAVY AND MISPLACED SO MANY PASSES .THE TRUTH HAS TO BE TOLD NONE OF THIESE GUYS ARE SUPER EAGLES MATERIAL. I PRAY WE QUALIFY FOR THE OLYMPICS AS I SEE MOST OF THE PRESENT U23 PLAYERS MIGHT FIND IT DIFFICULT TO BE IN THE TEAM EXCEPT FOR AWONIYI AND NWAKALI. THEN MOST PEOPLE CLAMOURING FOR AZUBUIKE OF WHATS THE GUIY NAME I DONT SEE ANY THING SPECTACULAR IN HIM ,HONESTLY SPEAKING I REALLY DONT LIKE ROHR TACTICAL AWARENESS BUT I MUST SAY HE IS A GOOD COACH WHEN IT COMES TO SELECTION,I THINK ROHR HAS VIRTUALLY SELECTED ALL GOOD PLAYERS AVAILABLE FOR EAGLES, THEN WHY WOULD THE COACH SUBSTITUTE NWAKALI FOR THE HAUSA GUY ,THIS IS PRACTICALLY THE BEST PLAYER ON THE PITCH WHO JUST SCORED A SUPERB FREE KICK AND YET THE COACH REMOVED HIM. I THINK POLITICS IS WHAT IS KILLING OUR FOOTBALL. HARDLY WOULD YOU SEE ANY COACH NOT FIELDING GUYS FROM THE NORTH JUST BECAUSE IF THEY FAIL THEY CAN HAVE SOMEONE TO RUN TO,AM NOT AGAINST ANY TRIBE REPRESENTING NIGERIA AS LONG AS THE PLAYER MERITS THE CALL UP. I THINK THIS IS THE PROBLEM THE CABAL IS FACING WITH ROHR THEY HAD WANTED BY ALL MEANS TO PLACE SO PLAYERS ON HIM BUT THE MAN WONT ACCEPT,THATS THE MENTALITY BETWEEN A WHITE COACH AND A BLACK MAN AND THAT WOULD MAKE ME GO FOR A WHITE COACH ANY DAY ANY TIME. I WONT BE SURPRISED IF TOMORROW ROHR IS FIRED BECAUSE I KNOW PICKNICK WOULD LIKE TO SATISFY HIS FRIENDS THAT EXONERATED HIM FROM ALL CORRUPTION CHARGES.
Incidentally,the Hausa lad Adam,who was subbed in for Nwakali brought calm to the team.His presence and ball playing ability was crucial towards the later part of the game.
Nwakali though scored a vital goal through a brilliant set piece but didn’t cover himself in glory if we want to assess him based on his standards.
Apparently,It’s obvious his inactivity for sometime now has taken a toll on him and the sooner he sorted his club future out the better for him because he is a promising talent.
I think this is an unfortunate comment based on tribalism. Did you actually watch the match? The Adamu fellow was very good for the period he played. Unless we started looking at performances of players instead of their names, we will keep having silly comments like the one by Playxxxx.
Yes@Gajere the Adamu guy played well
Based on majority of the comments on this forum, it is clear that the coach handling Olympic eagles is not up to the task. You may want to dispute this but if you watched the match today you will agree that the coach can’t handle this team.
The Olympic eagles won today not because of the technical input of the coach but because of the grit of some of the players. I really want to emphasize that the team won because of the grit of some of the players and not the technical input of the coach.
Watching the game today (the second game that the team will be playing together), it is clear that some players do not deserve to be in the team. At Under 23 level, players should not be running aimlessly, just ballooning the ball to any direction, unable to make good crosses, or complete 2 to 3 passes. This is what some of the players did on the pitch for the entire 90 mins.
As for the coach, there was no definite pattern he asked the team to play (I did not see any). Also, I don’t understand why you would take out one of your 2 good midfielders (one of which is probably the best the set-piece player you have on the team) at a time you needed to shore up the midfield. The Zambians where just kicking legs and committing fouls upon fouls, yet the coach thought it wise to take out the set-piece player who coincidentally scored one of the goals from a free kick. You needed to see the expression on the faces of the players after they were changed. One of them was even like, ” I no know wetin I do.”
It is not uncommon for coached to have favorites in their team. But I believe if 75% of the players selected to this team are good players (I will not even raise it to the level of very good or exceptional), they will not have problems defeating all the teams in their group and qualifying for the Olympics (I pray they do qualify, regardless of these shortcomings). However, I want to say kudos to the goalkeeper (he really tried in the match today), Okechukwu, Nwakali, Awoniyi, and Orji. They were the match winners today.
I pray they win SA , so that we can avoid Egypt and their home Fans.
We can win them in the final if we beat Cameroon in the Semi final hopefully Cameroon wins Mali in their last group match.
Rohr and Amuneke need to take this team to olympics if they qualify, no sentiments, Merit is essential to success.
Without wasting your time on frivolities, I wana go straight to the point. I think super Eagles weakness is attack. I’m worried about who replaces Osimhen wen injuries set in. I have watched and noticed that paul anuchu does not fit into S.E present style of play because he is very slow and does not dovetail with the counter attacking style of Chukwu Eze, Kalu and other attacking outlet. I therefore took something to watch available options on YouTube. From the avalanche of Nigerian strikers I have watched I believe with out doubt that Chidera Ejuke, and cyriel dessers are the most outstanding,in that order because they fit into the S.E present attacking style. For example Ejuke can attack very well from deep with bursting speed and successful dribbling. Rohr, over to you sir
Dessers Cyril is a better striker with good body built that Nigeria must of urgent cap tie him before Belgium take him. I wonder why he was not invited for these games. Time the scouts should stop this England slavery and search for good players elsewhere
I’m glad we won this match. It gives us an advantage in this group from now anything is possible. Ivory Coast are not are not even certain of qualifying. The boys did their best Orji, Nwakali, Azubuike and Awoniyi truly won the match for us yesterday. This is almost Zambia’s full national team and their U20 team that did really well two years ago.
Technically, I think Imama can not handle this team, but I think he should be able to qualify them for the Olympics. Then that’s when we can call for a change. Instead of already condemning the team before the game even started. Lol! Someone even crawl out of a grave that Zambia will spell Imama LMAO!! For now the team and the technical crew should be commended for assembling a team in a hurry that hadn’t really played together particularly, when the local league is not functioning. At the end of the day it is the foreign pros that are eventually helping the team.
Now I expect the team to take flight from here because they will begin to gel. #FLY LIKE AN EAGLE INTO THE FUTURE# VAMOS ARRIBA OLYMPIC EAGLESSS!!
I watched the game, and I saw what used to be super eagles performance before rohr came, the westerhoff 1994 style of play, reliance on individual skills rather than a team game, a player will have a chance to pass but will decide to shoot and the shooting is always either blocked or wayward, another thing that has been apparent with our local coach in clubsides and when handling national team that always cause their team defeat is when you put pressure on an opponent and they are able to score one goal up, they then sit back to start soaking pressure, this style will allow the opposing team to gain confidence, and the Nigerian team to loose confidence, what made you to pile pressure and you are able to score a goal up, use it to score two or three goals up before starting to soak pressure, you soak pressure because your players are tiring and not because you are one goal up. Nigeria pressed them to score two goals after conceding, then the coach started removing the creative players to start soaking pressure, do it with any good europian side, they will beat you. You can try that tactics in Olympic and you think you can go far. Ghana is a team I love in Africa, they are ready to beat you well, if they know they can, and the northern African teams too. Me, I call it lazy coaching, Nigeria style of play is not suited to defending because Nigeria is naturally skillful and Nigeria need a coach that can explore this ability to win matches, even the so called bad Nigeria players in the local league. No Nigeria team can play defensive and be successful. If South Africa is a good team , they will win Nigeria, if they should play like that against them, what saved Nigeria yesterday was the fact that the Zambia goalkeeper was very poor.
The coaches should be reminded that we are in 2019 and not 1994 again, they should grow with the trend
Good performance yesterday lads. You guys can still do far better.