Nigeria went into the international break hoping to come away with maximum points, but things did not quite go to plan for the Super Eagles.
Guinea-Bissau were the nation that Nigeria faced twice in a pair of 2023 AFCON qualifiers. The Super Eagles lost the home tie but won 1-0 away.
With plenty of talking points from the recent qualifiers, we look at the top three.
Plenty of work to do
Both Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau went into the international break unbeaten, but with the Super Eagles winning 10-0 in their previous AFCON qualifier, they were certainly expected to come away with two victories.
However, this wasn’t to be as they failed to break down Guinea-Bissau in the first match, and only managed to find the back of the net from the penalty spot in the second game to secure the win.
Victor Osimhen has been in red hot form for Napoli this season, scoring 21 goals in 23 games in the league, but when he has not got his shooting boots on for his nation, Nigeria evidently struggle in front of goal.
As Bet9ja Ambassador alluded to last week, there is no easy game in African football, especially when teams put men behind the ball, like Guinea-Bissau did.
In-form players such as Osimhen and Ademola Lookman were well below par and trying to shoehorn all four of Osimhen, Lookman, Kelechi Iheanacho and Samuel Chukwueze didn’t work in Friday’s defeat.
Not afraid to change things up
Jose Peseiro is yet to find out what his strongest starting XI is, after he made five changes in their second fixture.
The game plan didn’t work for the Super Eagles in the first match, so the Nigeria boss opted to make several changes, and his decision paid dividends after they got the win second time out against Guinea-Bissau, thanks to a Moses Simon penalty.
Peseiro might have learnt a lot more from the second match about what players work in the system that he’s looking to implement, so although they might be disappointed after the first result, he will now certainly have a greater understanding about his players.
More questions than answers
After four games played in their group, Nigeria sit at the top of Group A with nine points, and are strong favourites to qualify for the 2023 AFCON, despite surprisingly dropping points.
They will face Sierra Leone and Sao Tome Principe in the final two games of the qualifiers, and should ease past them both to ensure they are at the tournament come January 2024.
Although top of Group A, the overriding conclusion for these two matches is that there’s still plenty of work to do for Peseiro to find his best starting XI and formation, ahead of next year’s tournament.
With the all the best Nigerian players back in action this weekend for their European clubs, you can bet on all the biggest matches at Bet9ja, with hundreds of markets to play.
