SAN FRANCISCO, November 13, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s senior national men’s team the Super Eagles surrendered a four-goal first half lead to draw 4-4 against the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone in a Group L Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying game on Friday evening.
An Alex Iwobi brace and goals from Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Villarreal’s Samuel Chukwueze handed the Super Eagles an impressive first-half lead before a double from Al-Hadji Kamara and efforts from Kwame Quee and Mustapha Bundu ensured the game ended with both sides sharing the spoils.
Nigeria headed into the encounter as Group L leaders with wins against the Republic of Benin and Lesotho in November 2019 before the outbreak of Covid-19.
The game started brightly with both teams determined to get the opener. It was Nigeria that broke the deadlock and rushed to put acres of space between them and the Sierra Leonians inside the first 30 minutes.
The Super Eagles began when Everton star Iwobi opened the scoring, driving a fine strike from the edge of the box past Mohamed Kamara in the Leone Stars’ goal.
John Keister’s charges came close to an equaliser in the 20th minute but missed the gilt-edged chance and were made to pay when Nigeria doubled their lead two minutes later.
A fine cross from Zaidu Sanusi was met by Osimhen who hit a thunderous effort into the back of the net. The Nigerian side continued to dominate proceedings and Iwobi got his double of the tie when he lofted a brilliant ball beyond Kamara in the 27th minute.
It was 4-0 in the 29th minute with a solo Chukwueze goal. The brilliant striker drilled a superb strike into the top corner for the three-time African champions.
However, Quee pulled one back for Sierra Leone moments before half time to give the Leone Stars some consolation going into the break.
Although the second-half continued to witness a Super Eagles’ domination of proceedings, Chukwueze’s attempt for a brace of his own was correctly ruled offside.
German coach Rohr then introduced red-hot Leicester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho for captain Musa and West Bromwich Albion centre-back Semi Ajayi for Leon Balogun in the 65th minute.
It was not long after that Sierra Leone rallied to make for an interesting end to the fixture. Kamara scored to reduce the deficit in the 72nd minute and Mustapha Bundu followed suit with the third for the Leone Stars, eight minutes later.
Kamara then notched the all-important equalising goal with four minutes left to full time to ensure his side shared the points with the Super Eagles at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.
What appeared a certain victory inside of the first half hour for the Super Eagles ended up an engaging draw and the Nigerian side will have to ask themselves serious questions about how they let a four-goal lead slip away. THEWILL hopes they can do that quickly and find answers before the reverse fixture in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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.
