Nigeria’s Super Eagles, among the favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations by reputation only, could only salvage a 1-1 draw courtesy of a close-range header from Victor Osimhen against supposed minnows Equatorial Guinea in their Group A opener in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
It was another lethargic display from Nigeria, who have now drawn their last three competitive matches and it looked like they needed a goal from their less than celebrated opponents to wake them up from the stupor. It came in the 36th minute after the Nigerian midfield and defence put in a good impression of spectators as the Guineans ended a flowing move with a cool side-foot finish to the bottom corner of the Nigerian net from Ivan Edu with his left.
The Nigerian reaction was immediate following that wake up call as Ademola Lookman put in a good cross from the left for African Player of the Year Osimhen to nod in.
But any hopes of this sparking a Nigerian renaissance was forlorn. It was the usual disjointed display from almost every player in a green shirt, misplaced passes, poor decision making and playing without a sense of purpose. It’s one thing to have Osimhen, top scorer in Serie A last season in your team, but it’s another playing football with a midfield bereft of creativity.
The 32 degrees heat may not have helped, but it raised further questions why the squad camped in Abu Dhabi for a week before the tournament, instead of anywhere in Nigeria that would have had similar temperatures as Abidjan.
The heat didn’t seem to affect Alhassan Yusuf from Royal Antwerp in the Belgian first division, who was making his debut for the national team in the absence of Leicester’s injured Wilfred Ndidi. Yusuf was full of energy and was possibly Nigeria’s best player alongside Lookman, who later flagged in the second half. The Super Eagles will be hoping that the injury that saw Yusuf replaced after 67 minutes by Joe Aribo won’t see him missing the Thursday’s clash with the hosts, who already have three points in the bag from yesterday’s victory over Guinea-Bissau.
Aribo, as ever, didn’t look like an international footballer and you always wonder why he should be in the set up when he doesn’t start for his second tier team Southampton.
Despite the eyesore on display from Nigeria, they still had enough chances to bury Equatorial Guinea. Osimhen missed the best one with about 15 minutes left from a brilliant through ball from Alex Iwobi. The Napoli striker dragged his effort wide when it would have been easier to score. Jesus Owono was the busier of the two keepers and made some good saves, but should have picked the ball out of the net more than once if not for erratic decision making and shooting from the likes of Zaidu Sanusi.
Coach Jose Peseiro decided to put dodgy goalie Francis Uzoho out of his misery and start with Stanley Nwabali from Chippa United in South Africa. He could do very little about the Equatorial Guinea goal, but could have got out his pipe and slippers for the rest of the match.
The next game will reveal if he is an upgrade on Uzoho, even if most Nigerian fans are in the “anyone but Uzoho” category. Nothing Nigeria served up today would have given Ivory Coast any sleepless nights. The worrying thing for Nigeria is that neither coach nor players seem to have anything in the locker to raise their game. The over-optimistic Nigerian fans would convince themselves that the last time they won the Nations Cup in 2013, they also drew the opening game.
