BEVERLY HILLS, October 13, (THEWILL) – The international friendly between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia ended one goal apiece as the two African footballing powerhouses shared the spoils in Austria at the Jacques Lemans Arena.
Nigeria came to the game off the back of a lone goal defeat against the Desert Foxes of Algeria on Friday and were desperate to sign off the international break on a high. They are yet to register a win this year as international matches were mostly hindered by the outbreak of the Coronavirus.
But the Super Eagles coach, German Gernot Rohr, desirous for a win, made five changes to the lineup he fielded against the North Africans from the start and altered the shape of the team.
Applying a 4-1-4-1 formation, the captain of the side Ahmed Musa, striker for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Arabian League, started upfront with Kelechi Iheanacho of the English Premier League side Leicester, supporting him.
That combination was fruitful almost immediately as a link-up play between both players in the 20th minute was all that was needed for the Leicester man to crisply slot in the ball into the back of the net after holding off a two-man marking defense.
Seven minutes after his goal, Iheanacho was presented with an opportunity for a brace to double the Super Eagles’ lead from the penalty spot when Tunisia’s Farouk Ben Mustapha was yellow-carded for a dangerous foul.
However, his left-footed shot directed to the centre of the goal was saved and the chance went begging.
He would rue that miss because just before the break, Tunisia found the back of the net through Olympiacos right back Mohamed Drager. The Tunisian rifled a left-footed shot from the centre of the Nigerian box to the centre of the net from a glorious assist by Hamza Rafia.
The teams went into the break level and though a raft of substitutions were made in the second half that saw the introduction of some Super Eagles players like the Genk striker Cyriel Dessers in place of Ahmed Musa and Chidera Ejuke for Samuel Chukwueze to add bite to the attack, no more goals came for either team.
THEWILL sees that this result keeps the head-to-head win for each team at six but increases the draws to eight.
