As a Nigerian, I support the National Football Team at every level, which sometimes has made me do things I’m not going to mention on this post. With club football out of the way for a while, it was only normal for a Nigerian Gooner to brace himself up for what proved to be a very crucial World Cup qualifier against the current African champions, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
For those that don’t know, there are some similarities between Nigeria and Arsenal. For starters, they are very good bottlers. C’mon, how many defending AFCON champions fail to qualify for the next two editions of the tournament? Following our poor showing against South Africa, we stand a chance of missing the tournament three times in a row bar some sort of miracle in Johannesburg for the second leg.
However, our road to Russia has been a smooth ride with wins against Zambia and Algeria in our first two games. Yesterday, Cameroon, fresh of their AFCON triumph and Confederations Cup campaign, arrived in Uyo knowing that they needed a victory on the ground of one of their fierce rivals, as they had struggled to draw their first two games against Algeria and Zambia.
The home side featured a very strong lineup, as the manager learned from the lessons of the South Africa debacle and they opened the scoring with some quick thinking from John Mikel Obi and some improvised attacking play from ex-Watford striker, Odion Ighalo. There was a sour feel to the goal as the striker was booked for revealing the message on his inner shirt. Shitty rules if you ask me. He didn’t even remove his jersey. The Super Eagles doubled their money when Ighalo dummied two defenders to allow Victor Moses’ corner get to Mikel’s path. The Nigeria captain still had to reacted quicker than his marker to smash the ball into the roof of Ondoa’s net.
Going into the break with 2-0 lead was welcome, but Nigeria still had to keep their foot on the pedal. Cameroon were on the ascendancy after the break but it took a well-deserved Moses goal to put the game beyond doubt. The buildup was from lovely counter attacking football and when he got on the end of that Simon Moses cutback, the writing was on the wall. I loved the soaring Eagles celebration more though. An injury concern for Odion Ighalo saw Kelechi Iheanacho join the fray to put the icing on the cake for Nigeria with his seventh goal in 11 games for his nation.
Three games, nine points in the bag and qualification to next year’s World Cup within sights. The Super Eagles will be heading to Yaounde to finish the job and they should be spurred with the fact that Cameroon’s manager, Broos, has resigned from position following their poor qualification campaign that has seen them amass just two points from a possible nine.
I guess the Lions of Cameroon aren’t indomitable after all.
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