Watched by capacity crowd at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, the Super Eagles have begun the reigns of head coach, Gernot Rohr, with a 1-0 victory over the Taifa Stars of Tanzania in a 2017 AFCON qualifier yesterday.
Over 30,000 fans were at the stadium to cheer the Eagles in the dead rubber fixture with both teams already out of next year’s AFCON slated for Gabon and after waiting patiently for 78th minutes they were rewarded with a spectacular strike off the boot of Manchester City striker, Kelechi Iheanacho whose 25 yard well weighed-in shot sailed past impressive Tanzanian goalkeeper.
The Eagles started the match on a fast lane in the first half and had golden opportunity to take the lead in the opening five minutes but Odion Jude Ighalo and Victor Moses were guilty of missed chances.
The Tanzanians did not lie low waiting for the Eagles to capitalise and after early gilt edge chances wasted by the Nigerian senior national team they came out of their shell and forced Eagles’
goalkeeper, Carl Ikeme to make some decent saves.
The Nigerian team dominated the game for a long spell but they were uncoordinated in front of goal but the Eagles played as a unit and the decision of the head coach, Rohr to invite the team’s best legs because of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers seemed to have paid off.
The tempo of the game changed dramatically after the Eagles got the lone goal as Nigeria emerged as second best in the group with five points from four matches and five points adrift of group leaders, Egypt who are on 10 points while Tanzania are last with a point from four games.
It was the first time Eagles have had the maximum points at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, since it was commissioned three years ago.
