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The Super Eagles of Nigeria were able to get some collective and individual milestones from Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations clash with Sudan, which ended in a 3-1 win for the three-time champions.
Not only did the victory secure Nigeria qualification to the knock-out stage with a match to spare, it also came on an evening the Eagles had the same starting line-up for their first two matches of the competition.
The last time that happened was against Algeria at AFCON 2019, but it was victory this time in Garoua, as against a semi-final defeat the Eagles suffered two years ago in Egypt.
Megasportsarena.com further gathered that Saturday’s game also marked the first time Leganes of Spain central defender, Kenneth Omeruo would get back-to-back starts for the Nigerian national team since July 2019.
Another milestone from AFCON 2019 could not be replicated, as goalkeepr for the day, Emil Maduka Okoye could not repeat the feat of Daniel Akpeyi of clean sheets in his first two AFCON appearances.
Incidentally, four players that Eagles’ interim coach, Augustine Eguavoen named in his starting line-up shared one thing in common from the FIFA U17 World Cup.
The common feat among them is that they all played in the grand finale of the Cadet Mundial, and were in the Golden Eaglets’ first 11, being Omeruo (2009), Kelechi Iheanacho and Taiwo Awoniyi (2013) as well as Samuel Chukwueze (2015).
Iheanacho, though, failed to become the next Nigerian player to score in his first two AFCON matches since Emmanuel Emenike did it January 2013 en route to winning gold in South Africa.
However, Iheanacho’s club pal at Leicester City of England, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi got his ninth consecutive AFCON appearance, more than any other player in Nigeria’s starting line-up, and they both got a message of celebration from their club after the game.
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