Posted by 9jabook.com on January 20, 2010 at 9:25pm
The Super Eagles have been praised by football fans across the country for their five star performance against Mozambique yesterday.
Our boys trashed the Mambas 3-0 to book a place behind Egypt in the quarter-final. The Pharoahs top the group with nine points.
For former Eagles coach Christian Chukwu, the Eagles won yesterday because they reverted to wing play and fast paced attacking football.
"The team is now gradually improving, and are finally playing together as a unit, the attackers did well, and they were faster than before and with in-form Osaze and Obasi coming from the wings," he said.
The ex-Eagles coach however said "there is room for improvement". Though he refused to comment on the technical crew of the Eagles, Chukwu said all the calls for the technical crew to be sacked is a distraction that should be left till after the Nations Cup.
Arsenal 4 Bolton 2
Arsenal's return to the top of the Premier League was overshadowed last night by a William Gallas tackle on Mark Davies that was described by Bolton Wanderers manager Owen Coyle as “akin to an assault”.
Coyle said that he had seen lesser challenges punished with a red card and was further angered when Gallas played on while Davies was on the floor. From the same passage of play, Cesc Fabregas scored an equalising goal that proved to be the turning point in the match. As Arsenal celebrated, Davies required around five minutes of treatment before being taken off on a stretcher amid fears that he has broken his ankle.
The Eagles match in summary
In yesterday's game, Chinedu Obasi hit the first shot on target for the Super Eagles in the 9th minute but Rafael Kapango did well to parry the ball to safety.
In 21st minute, Obasi was again well positioned to place the Super Eagles ahead after Danny Shittu nodded a free kick across the face of the Mambas' goal, but he failed to nod the ball past Kapango from two yards out.
Ten minutes later, the Hoffenheim striker broke free for the Super Eagles but Kapango was quick off his line to curtail the danger.
The Super Eagles finally shot into the lead in the 45th minute through a thunderous shot from Osaze Odemwingie that left Kapango sprawling on the turf.
Second half
Barely two minutes after the break, the Lokomotiv Moscow of Russia forward was on hand to fire the Super Eagles further ahead. A counter attack initiated by Sani Kaita deep in the Nigerian half finds Aiyegbeni Yakubu, who beats the Mozambican offside trap before feeding a precise pass to the unmarked Odemwingie, who calmly slotted the ball home.
In the 68th minute, Obafemi Martins took the place of Yakubu in the attack for his first piece of action in Angola 2010. Eighteen minutes later, the Wolfsburg of Germany striker made it three-nil for Nigeria after the Mozambican goalkeeper parried a Mikel shot his way.It could have been worse for the Mambas in the 90th minute had Obinna Nsofor, who came in for Odemwingie, not shot straight at Kapango after being put through on goal by Martins.
The Super Eagles will now remain in Lubango ahead of a quarter final clash next Monday against the winners of Group D which will be decided later today as Cameroon takes on Tunisia and Gabon tackles Zambia.
Eagles back on track
For Garba Lawal the Super Eagles have woken from their slumber.
"This is the best performance from the boys in a long while and I hope they can take it on from there," he said.
Lawal said the threat to disband the team was not responsible for the Eagles performance against the Mambas.
"I would not say the threat made them play the way they played, it was the determination and the choices of players made by the coach. You can see what Martins brought into the game, the wonderful job Sani Kieta did in the midfield and the heroic saves by Enyeama," he said.
With the quarter finals ticket now secured, Lawal warned that the Eagles should not allow today's victory get into their heads.
Fortunate
Former Green Eagles player, Okey Isima, described the trouncing of Mozambique as a last minute effort by embattled coach, Amodu to save his job.
"The(Super Eagles) played very well today for the first time since the beginning of this tournament. They entered this match with a game plan. Anytime Amodu is on the line to get fired, he does something that will stop him from being sacked.
"He must have gotten some coaching from somewhere; maybe he read some text books last night or maybe it's due to all the pressure from the press but then they should remember that tomorrow is another day so that they don't get carried away by the victory," he said.
Man of the match
The ex-international also believes that Super Eagles forward, Osaze Odemwingie is the driving force of the team, and he called on the other players to also use their initiative in ensuring that they score goals:
"Osaze is God sent; he made the thing happen even though every other person played well. Scoring is very important in any game; we were very lucky that the Mozambicans missed all their chances or else the game would have been a different story. We cannot always wait for Osaze to bell the cat; for me he is the man of the match".
Though Isima feels that the team can do with some improvement, he says that if the Super Eagles can beat likely opponents, Tunisia or Gabon if they play the way they did against Mozambique:
"If we can just keep up the way we played today, it will be better for us if we meet Tunisia or any other team."
Nigeria's quarter-final opponent will emerge today after the last round of group matches between Camreoun and Tunisia, and the second game between Gabon and Zambia.
Read more…
