The Super Eagles again failed to live up to expectation on Tuesday, as the star-studded Nigerian battled to a goalless draw away to Sierra Leone in the second leg of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Freetown, megasportsarena.com reports.
Four days after The Leone Stars stunned their more prestigious opponents by storming back from four goals down to force a 4-4 draw in Benin City, the Anglophone West Africans again held their own firmly against the Eagles during a pulsating game at Siaka Stephens Stadium.
While Group L rivals, Benin Republic and Lesotho also settled for a goalless draw in Maseru, the encounter in Freetown turned out to be tougher for the Nigerian squad than they reckoned, and Gernot Rohr’s lads failed to rise beyond what the occasion demanded.
Rohr made only one tactical change to the starting line-up he had for the first leg in Benin City, with Ola Aina stepping in as left-back in place of ineffective Siadu Zanusi, while injured Victor Osimhen was replaced by Kelechi Iheanacho in the first eleven, but it was still blunt edges all the way for the three-time African champions.
Many commentaries of the game that started 5pm Nigeria time recognized Villarreal of Spain winger, Samuel Chukwueze as Nigeria’s man of the match, but another line of reasoning narrated how Rohr’s side again looked clueless in a game that had vowed to win.
Rather than get maximum points as promised, though, Ahmed Musa and his colleagues could only toil to a barren stalemate that was just enough to keep them top of the table a point ahead of Benin Republic, with both sides set to tango next in the Francophone West African nation, which would potentially determine which sides ends at the zenith of the pool.
A headline by BBC Sport reporter, Ben Sutherland read: “Nigeria now have to wait four months,” while BBC Africa Sport commentator in Lagos, Janine Anthony added: “A tepid end to a tepid game. Nigeria have dropped four points of a possible six and now Sierra Leone have two matches to fight back.
“If you’d have given them this before the qualifiers, they would have taken it. But the story of this rounds of home-and-away games will be that Nigeria bungled a four-goal lead and will now have to wait four months to be certain of qualifying for Cameroon 2022. Final whistle – after the goal-fest a few days ago, this was the opposite: tight, frustrated and goalless.”
