In a crucial group C encounter, the Super Eagles of Nigeria took on the Zimbabwean National team at the God’s will Akpabio Stadium, but the entire population of football lovers in Nigeria were thrown into bitterness after the team failed to hold to a one nill lead to beat bottom ranked team of group C after taking the lead through an Osimhen header.
It was all Joy and merriment when Nigerian hitman Victor Osimhen pounced on an Ola Aina cross to put the Super Eagles ahead in the 74th minute of the encounter after the away side had put on a good display defensively to ensure that all through the first half the home team had no notable shot, except for a header in the first half from victor Osimhen which drew an unbelievable save our of the Zimbabwean 39yr old goal keeper, Arubi W.
The failure of African footballer of the year Ademola Lookman, and his team mates to produce anything upfront returned to bite the super eagles in the 90th minute of the encounter when the Zimbabwean team pulled up string of passes to break the Eagles defense as substitute Chirewa T managed to poke the ball pass Super Eagles Shot stopper to level the tie one all.
After the game the super Eagles coach looked the most disappointed as he envisaged a different outcome due to the caliber of players possessed by the Nigerian side.
It proved abortive despite a desperate push by the Super Eagles team I’m added time to restore their lead as the game ended in a 1-1 draw.
It must be a difficult time for many Nigerian football fans across the globe as the team had recently put up a good fight against Rwanda to place themselves in a slightly favorable position to catch group leaders South Africa but it all went down the drain at the blast of the final whistle at Uyo with news coming from Abidjan that the South African team had beaten Benin Republic to increase their lead at the top by 6 points.
Many would argue that Nigeria’s second most reliable player Ademola Lookman played out of position, but football has taught us that there is no excuse for failure, so we gather our selves and hope that the god of soccer(if there is anything like that or anything supernatural in football) comes through by the 1st of September when the players return for the conclusion of the World cup qualifiers.
