Nigeria’s Super Eagles were forced to a leaderboard in Freetown on Monday, barely four days after Sierra Leone’s Leone Stars claimed their famous 4-4 draw in Benin City. Nigeria’s qualification for Cameroon 2022 has been delayed by another match day.
However, Super Eagles remain at the top of Group L of the 2022 AFCON qualifying competition with eight points. Benin Republic, who also played a barred draw with Lesotho, are second on seven points. Sierra Leone is third on two points with Lesotho behind by just one point.
The Sierra Leoneans, who were stopped by the draw in Nigeria last Friday, dreamed of snatching all three points at stake to increase their chances of choosing one of the group’s tickets.
However, it was the Super Eagles who embarrassed them with the result in Benin City that presented their first threat on goal in the third minute, with Kelechi Iheanacho shooting directly from a free kick on target, although she effort for Sierra Leone was no problem. goalkeeper Mohamed Kamara.
Eagles got another chance at 16 minutes when Samuel Chukwueze curled an attempt just outside the box before Leone Stars had their first chance through Alhaji Kamara, who was denied by a good save from Maduka Okoye in goal for Nigeria. .
Galghasaray of Turkey’s midfielder Oghenekaro Etebo suffered an injury a few minutes before the time when he limped and was replaced by Shehu Abdullahi.
In the halftime whistle, both teams closed at 0-0.
Super Eagles again created the better chances after the restart, with Iheanacho shooting high and wide at 51 minutes after a good set-up by Chukwueze, while the Leicester City striker found the back of the net just after the hour, but that he was off guard.
In the middle of the second half, the Super Eagles threatened again when Alex Iwobi just shot from long range, with Gernot Rohr’s team starting to build up a constant pressure in attack.
However, the defense of the host got stuck – with a little help from goalkeeper Kamara, who made another good save in the 82nd minute when he deflected Iheanacho’s shot from the edge of the penalty area.
All the teams in the group have two more matches to play in the new match, with Nigeria just needing a win to advance to the real tournament.
GROUP L
PWDL GF GA GD PTS
Nigeria 4 2 2 – 10 7 3 8
Benin Rep.4 2 1 1 3 2 1 7
S’Leone 4 0 3 1 5 6 -1 3
Lesotho 4 0 2 2 3 6 -3 2
RESULTS
S’Leone 0-0 Nigeria
Lesotho 0-0 Benin Rep.
Namibia 0-1 Mali
Sudan 1-0 Ghana
Angola 0-1 DR Congo
ENGINE 0-2 Morocco
Rwanda 0-0 Cape Verde
Togo 1-3 Egypt
Tanzania 0-1 Tunisia
Ethiopia 3-0 Niger
Ma’gascar1-1 I’Coast