THE Super Eagles have a chance to redeem their battered image today just three days after their humiliating home defeat to Guinea-Bissau.
The three-time continental champions were beaten 1-0 at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium on Friday in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying clash by Guinea-Bissau, a team ranked 83 places below them by FIFA.
Now head coach Jose Peseiro and his players can undo some of the damage by winning the reverse fixture today in Bissau.
Although they were largely below-par on Friday on the patchy Moshood Abiola National Stadium pitch, the Super Eagles still created enough chances to at least earn a face-saving draw.
Peseiro admits that his side must be more clinical today if they are to get anything out of Bissau.
“We created several opportunities in Abuja and it’s not normal for a team like ours to miss them all,” Peseiro said in Bissau.
“Of course Guinea-Bissau beat us and they deserved their victory but I also believe we deserved much more.
“It’s always good for a team to create opportunities but we must also score with these opportunities.”
With Victor Osimhen still around to lead the line, the Super Eagles have the armoury to hurt the Djurtus in their backyard, but the other players around the Napoli striker must step up their performances.
Although Osimhen was also not at his ruthless best in Abuja, he put himself about and looked like the only one in the Super Eagles attack with the desire to win.
The service to the Napoli striker by wide men Ademola Lookman and Samuel Chukwueze as well as from Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho was not nearly good enough as crosses were overhit and wrong decisions were made time after time.
Going by how they perfectly executed their plan to catch the Super Eagles on the break in Abuja, it is obvious that the Djurtus will not be sitting ducks in Bissau as they aim for another shock win over the under-pressure Nigerians.
The Super Eagles are now in a situation where their qualification no longer appears guaranteed, especially after Sierra Leone’s 2-0 win over Sao Tome and Principe yesterday.
The Leone Stars are now just one point behind the Super Eagles and will be hoping Guinea-Bissau win today to keep it that way.
Sierra Leone, who caused another major stir in 2020 when they came from 4-0 down to hold the Super Eagles to a 4-4 draw in Benin City in a 2021 AFCON qualifier, will believe they can snatch second place from Nigeria when the two sides meet again in Freetown.
In their first meeting of this campaign, Sierra Leone scored first in Abuja before Nigeria turned it around to win 2-1.
To avoid a nervy finale to the qualifying campaign which they were expected to breeze through, the Super Eagles need to win today in Bissau.
A draw would leave them still second in Group A behind Guinea-Bissau and a defeat would all but seal first place for the Djurtus and give Sierra Leone hope of taking the second ticket available to the group.
