After all was said and done, the Nigerians did all the saying on social media and left so much undone on the pitch. A beautifully-taken strike by Sebastien Haller to make it 2-1 to the hosts was enough to secure victory for Ivory Coast, but it didn’t reflect their superiority on the night. It was a dream ending for Haller after beating cancer and then delivering the goal that beat Nigeria.
With the possible exception of skipper William Troost-Ekong, who was consoled by being voted the Player of the Tournament, most of the Nigerian players chose the wrong night to deliver their worst performances at the tournament against the hosts that they had beaten 1-0 in the group stages, who also lost 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea.
The Nigerian midfield of Alex Iwobi and Frank Onyeka just had no answers to the dominant home midfield and spent most game attempting to put out fires when they were not giving possession away easily. Ola Aina was being run ragged by Simon Adingra on right side of the Nigerian defence and it was Adingra who provided the assist, after once again bettering Aina, for Haller’s killer finish at the 81st minute.
Nigeria had ridden their luck and benefited from some resolute defending to make it this far in the tournament, having conceded just two goals before the final. And despite Ivorian dominance, it was the Nigerians that took the lead after 38 minutes as Ekong powered home a header from a corner. Coach Jose Peseiro had earlier professed a love for pulling down the shutters if you score first and it looked like Nigeria might just sneak another lucky win.
But they were undone by dangerously negative tactics in attempting to defend the lead. Jose Mourinho said before the final that his namesake and countryman Peseiro was his best friend in football. They were at university together and it appears that the less famous Jose also learned from the more famous one the “anti-football” strategy of “parking the bus”, allowing the opposition to have the ball and waiting to hit on the break. Nigeria sat back after taking the lead, while the Ivorians said “no way Jose” and piled on the pressure.
“Parking the bus” may be a good idea with Mourinho’s teams that have been drilled on defensive discipline day in day out. But it’s hardly ever worked with Nigerian teams, with the tendency to lose concentration and make mistakes when under intense pressure.
After the break, the Nigerians continue to retreat into their defensive shell as the home side, buoyed by a capacity crowd, poured forward. It was only a matter of time before they levelled things. The surprise was they scored from a saveable header from Franck Kessie against goalie Stanley Nwabali, who had so far been a template of reliability. But Kessie shouldn’t have been unmarked when he struck just after the hour.
Nigeria continued to fail to give the Ivorian defence anything to worry about as striker Victor Osimhen battled in vain without decent service either from midfield or from wide positions. Samuel Chukwueze was a surprise inclusion at the start in place of Moses Simon, but he might as well have been a spectator in the stands as he performed a disappearing act. Ademola Lookman, with three goals in the tournament, seemed to have run out of steam. It took the second goal from Ivory Coast for Nigeria to even start to show some fight.
This must have been the most disappointing aspect for fans of the Super Eagles – the lack of effort that went with the absence of guile. Michael Jordan once said that he didn’t mind losing as long as there were no bullets left in his holster as he would have fired all of them. Nigeria lost and while it was clear that Ivory Coast were a lot better, with 63% possession and eight shots on target to Nigeria’s 37% and a paltry shot on target, the team just didn’t at least try to reduce the gap in quality with fighting spirit.
This must be down to the coach. He said afterwards that the home team were better than his team and he now needed to go and rest. But this seems like an attempt to divert attention away from his tactics and decision-making that should have bridged the gap between the two teams and not create a huge chasm.
