SUPER Eagles interim head coach Austin Eguavoen has explained how the team nullified Egypt’s biggest threat in their Cameroon 2021 Africa Cup of Nations opener on Tuesday.
Eguavoen’s side were dominant as they defeated the Pharaohs 1-0 through Kelechi Iheanacho’s strike in Garoua to go to the top of Group D.
Egypt’s and one of the world’s best players Mohamed Salah was completely marked out of the game as Nigeria ran rings around Egypt, and Eguavoen gave an insight into how his team did it.
“Salah is one of the best players in the world and we tried to cut off the supply to him,” Eguavoen said in his post-match interview.
“The strategy wasn’t a specific marker, but we instructed the players to close him down at any time and there must be a second player behind the marker.”
After the win over the group’s co-favourites, the Super Eagles next face Sudan on Saturday and Guinea Bissau four days later.
Eguavoen, who coached the Super Eagles to bronze in the 2006 AFCON in Egypt, said his side will treat each game as a major clash.
“Egypt is a well respected team; we respect them, but we’ve players who should be respected too,” he noted.”We will approach every game like a final.”
The other teams in Group D, Guinea-Bissau and Sudan, played out a 0-0 draw on Tuesday night to leave Nigeria two points clear at the top of the table.
Guinea-Bissau could not convert several chances, including a penalty, in the one-sided match.
