Super Eagles of Nigeria on Sunday evening secured their place in the African Cup of Nations finals coming up in Ivory Coast next year’s January following a hard fought win over Sierra Leone in Monrovia.
The Jose Peseiro’s led side had registered nine points from their first four games of the Group of the qualifiers having suffered a home defeat in the hands of Guinea-Bissau in Nigeria.
The three time African champions headed into the clash, knowing a point will be enough to seal their place in the competition’s finals but still needed to win to strengthen their chances of qualifying as group winners.
They got off to a promising start as Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, one of the best strikers around at the moment, fired home from a Kenneth Omeruo’s header inside the opening 20 minutes.
The lead was doubled two minutes after the half hour mark as Osimhen got his second of the day, and his seventh of the qualifiers to move two ahead of Sadio Mané as the leading goalscorer.
At that point of the game, it looked as though the Eagles were going to run away with it, only to allow their opponent a lifeline with half-time lurking.
The host draw level six minutes to the end of normal time as Crotone striker, Augustus Kargbo pounced on a loose ball on the edge of the area to make it 2-2.
Fortunately for the Eagles, they were able to grind out a late winner all thanks to leftback, Zaidu Sanusi, who made a brilliant run, taking out the Sierra Leone defence and goalkeeper before setting up Kelechi Iheanacho’s 13th international goal.
The win takes Nigeria to 12 points, now needing at most a draw in their final group game to seal top spot. However, should Guinea-Bissau fail to beat Sierra Leone, Nigeria will still qualify as group winner nonetheless the result of their meeting with Sao Tome and Principe in September.
Nigeria has now qualified for the main African continental competition for the 20th time in the Nation’s history while Victor Osimhen, with his double is able move ahead of Odion Ighalo and Ahmed Musa in the all-time list for leading goalscorer for the country.
He now 17, making him joint sixth, level with Samson Siasia in the all-time list — Osimhen also overtakes Sadio Mané (5) as the leading goalscorer in the AFCON qualifiers with his sixth and seventh.
Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
