2027AFCONQ: Nigeria Came From Behind to Beat Madagascar 2-1 in Uyo.
…Guinea Bissau Shock Tanzania 2-0 in Zanzibar City.
Two debutante Super Eagles players, George Ilenikhena who plays for Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia and Moses Usor who plays for LASK FC of Austria Friday rescued Nigeria from an embarrassing home defeat at the Godwill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo as Nigeria lept forward to a 2-1 Win in group L.
Determined Barea boys of Madagascar who FIFA gave the abbreviation MAD for their country drew the first blood in the 16th minute when Ryan Ponti floated a cross into the Nigerian box and a good header from over lapping Defender, Kari Ehasan beat Stanley Nwabali in goal for Nigeria.
The Barea boys ranked 104th wanted a win to upset Nigeria ranked 26th in the world and employed all kinds of tricks but Ref Alhadji Allaou Mahamat from Chad showed intolerance for those tricks when he flashed a yellow to Madagascar Goalkeeper, Dupire Geordan in the 36th minute looking straight into his eye balls to avoid his red card.
Alex Iwobi holding Nigeria’s midfield tossed the ball to new boy Ilenikhena to equalize in the 45+1 minute before the two teams went into the Locker rooms and on resumption Semi Ajayi came with his trademark dribbles on the flanks and found another new boy Moses Usor to score the winner in the 65th minute. This Moses who led Nigeria to cross the red sea of Madagascar was brought into play to replace over dribbling Chukwuemeka Eze in the 61st minute.
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Some 30,000 fans shouting themselves hoarse were at the stands to watch the Super Eagles throw away hard earned chances. Nigeria had 55-45% ball possessions stringing 460-494 passes that brought 22-4 shots at goal, 13-2 off target, 4-1 on target even as the Eagles had 35-6 touches within the box that birthed 5-2 corner kicks. Nigeria was more physical that Ref Mahamat called 14-9 fouls and flashed 2 yellow cards to Mad and one to Ngr.
Nigeria and Madagascar met five times before. They played goalless on 7th October 2010, Nigeria won 1-0 on 2nd June 2001, Nigeria won 2-0 on 5th September 2010, Nigeria repeated the 2-0 victory on 4th September 2011 but last time they met on 30th June 2019 in Alexandra Egypt Madagascar won 2-0.
Nigeria ranked 26th in the world has been to the AFCON final 21 times and won it three times in 1980, 1994 and 2013 wheras Madagascar appeared at the AFCON final once in 2019 and were stopped at the quarterfinal.
Earlier Guinea Bissau unsettled the Taifa Stars of Tanzania playing away at Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar city 2-0. Franculino scored the 1st goal in the 33rd minute and Mama Balde got the 2nd goal in the 58th minute.
Next group L matches will be on 29th September when Guinea Bissau will host Nigeria and Tanzania will still play Madagascar at home.
See the schedule for Group L.
11/11/26 Mad vs GBS
Ngr vs Tan
15/11/26 GBS VS MAD
TAN VS NGR
24/03/27 GBS VS TAN
MAD VS NGR
28/03/27 NGR VS GBS
TAN VS MAD
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
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#COSAFA #NFF #FMF.
