The Super Eagles of Nigeria secured their place in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 with a convincing 3-1 victory over the Falcons of Jediane from Sudan.
Goals from Samuel Chukwueze, Taiwo Awoniyi, and Moses Simon ensured Nigeria qualified for the knockout stages for the 14th time in the AFCON finals.
The Super Eagles stamped their authority as pre-tournament favourites in their second Group D game at the Roumde Adjia Stadium in Garoua on Saturday evening.
Villarreal’s Chukwueze opened the scoring within three minutes of play to settle the nerves of over 200 million Nigerian fans.
After a flying start by Austin Eguavoen’s men, the game settled down as Nigeria kept possession and prodded the Sudanese in search of the second goal.
The Super Eagles barely allowed the Falcons of Sudan anytime on the ball and the few times they got it, the North Africans could not do anything worthwhile with it.
William Troost-Ekong had a rare day in attack as he fired straight at the Sudanese goalkeeper in the 35th minute.
What followed was a goal-line scramble involving Joe Aribo, Awoniyi and Chukwueze as the North Africans escaped conceding a second goal by the whiskers.
Nigeria got their second goal on the stroke of half-time as Awoniyi opened his account for Nigeria, inadvertently nodding in a Troost-Ekong flick-on from Kelechi Iheanacho’s left-wing free-kick.
Moses Simon took only 45 seconds of the second half to get on the scoresheet, finishing off a sweeping super Eagles move with aplomb.
Eguavoen brought on Nigeria’s record appearance maker Ahmed Musa in place of Kelechi Iheanacho as well as Kelechi Nwakali to replace Joe Aribo with the Nigerian coach resting his key players with the result secure.
Sudan were handed a soft penalty in the 70th minute with Ola Aina guilty of stamping on his opponent from a rare Sudanese corner kick.
Walieldin Khedr stepped up to put the resultant penalty in the net, the first time the Sudanese would score in this year’s tournament.
The Super Eagles went in search of another goal to restore their three-goal advantage but Nwakali, Iwobi, and Ekong all missed chances to get their names on the scoresheet.
Nigeria are next in action against Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday, January 19 with their job almost done in Group D.
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