September 08, (THEWILL) – After a heavily changed squad of the Super Eagles of Nigeria rescued a comeback in the Matchday two fixture of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers against the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde on Tuesday, the early Nigerian grip of proceedings in the Group C qualifying series remained in tact.
The pendulum of opportunity appeared to swing in Cape Verde’s favour with the absence of most of the key players that have made the team competitive but who ply their trade in the United Kingdom due to the restrictions imposed on them by their clubs.
Added to this, Nigeria’s coach, Gernot Rohr, had to contend the match without the duo of Samuel Kalu and Tyronne Ebuehi, both of whom failed a COVID-19 test in controversial circumstances reminiscent of the case involving Alex Iwobi during the final stages of the African Cup of Nations AFCON qualifiers. In their absence, Rohr was left to make do with a cast of 19 players and a changed defense.
These circumstances encouraged the senior men’s national football team of the Archipelago Islands to come into the game brimming with confidence. Ryan Mendez, the top striker for the Cape Verdeans, had claimed that the Super Eagles of Nigeria were deficient without the likes of their solid performers like Iheanacho, his Leicester City teammate Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi, who provided the assists for Iheanacho on Friday against Liberia.
They put this confidence to early advantage in the match, exploiting the spaces the makeshift defence created in the backline to great effect with a 19th minute opener that made a tough situation even worse for the Nigerian side. Although Nigeria’s goalkeeper Maduka Okoye had a good game between the sticks, he was immediately under pressure.
To their credit, and even with three players making their competitive debuts in the Green and White, the Super Eagles were only behind for all of 10 minutes. Napoli’s Victor Osimhen found the equaliser by seizing upon a defensive error so that both sides went into the break level on one goal apiece.
The winning goal that completed Nigeria’s comeback was a gift from the Cape Verdeans, as much as it can be said to have come to bear due to the pressure the Super Eagles incessantly mounted on the danger area of the Blue Sharks. A back pass from Kenny Santos left his goalkeeper Vozinha stranded, leading to an own-goal in Nigeria’s favour.
It turned out to be all the Super Eagles needed to take full points from the qualifier as they held on, yellow cards aside, to finish the match 2-1. It might have been scrappy at times and requiring of the good fortune of an own-goal, but it got Rohr’s charges through the line and gave the country maximum points to top the group under the challenging circumstances.
For the Cape Verdeans, the loss left them third in the Group in one point from the draw in their first match against the Central African Republic (CAR), with whom they are equal on points, as CAR also lost their second match against Liberia. However, Pedro ‘Bubista’ Leitão, the coach of the host team gave an upbeat assessment of the result as he looked ahead with positivity.
Leitão was quick to point to the gulf in quality between the sides, as Cape Verde, ranked 77th in the world, is 43 places below Nigeria’s 34th place in the current FIFA Ranking. He therefore urged his charges to be consoled by their performance against one of the confirmed continental football heavyweights.
At a post-match conference, the coach noted: “Cape Verde doesn’t have to feel squeamish about losing to Nigeria. Nigeria are one of the best teams in Africa. We have to have the guts and humility to know that Nigeria is also an extremely strong team and losing to Nigeria is not a bad thing.
“An own goal is always difficult. It was a shame because it happened at a time when we were taking over the game, we had refreshed the team. But it happens. We are not here to blame anyone individually. In our team we always win together and lose together.”
In a statement of defiance, Leitão indicated the thinking pushing the Blue Sharks forward when he said: “Nobody wins or loses a qualification in two rounds. We have to keep fighting always. We have conditions to improve even more. It is still early in terms of qualification, and we have to have the faith and courage to work until the end.”
The Blue Sharks coach was stating the hard facts yet, the Super Eagles have a relatively easier task in the games that will follow. For the next international break in October, Nigeria will be facing a less challenging prospect in the double-header against bottom-placed CAR. With most of the team expected back, the Super Eagles are the clear favourites over both legs, on paper.
Beyond those two legs, should they earn full points, the Nigerian team will make the final group fixtures, which include a trip to Liberia and hosting Leitão’s Cape Verde, with all the confidence in the world and with the assurance of punching their ticket to Qatar guaranteed. It is still a long way to go but there is the advantage of starting strongly and of new competition for places in the Nigerian squad to make it a good start.
Rohr himself alluded to this in his own post-match comments when he said: “The new players have brought in new competition to the first team. We have had (Innocent) Bonke in our scouting team, they did well, we missed harmony in the early moment, but they did a good job.
“It was a difficult game for us, we needed to build a new team, it wasn’t easy, but in Nigeria we have abundant talents.”
The momentum is firmly on the side of the Super Eagles and when October comes, it will be worth seeing them file out in the home tie against CAR, on October 9, with the full strength of the squad in place and the possible featuring of some new names that have proven themselves.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
