Nigeria continued their unbeaten run in this year’s AFCON with another solid display against Cameroon, with Ademola Lookman’s double taking them through to the quarter-finals as The Super Eagles look to reach the pinnacle of African football once again.
With many of the fancied pre-tournament teams now out of the competition, Nigeria’s defensively sound setup and slowly developing offensive game makes them a team to watch in the next round. We spoke to AFCON 1994 winner and Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba about his thoughts on Nigeria’s 2-0 win.
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Credit to the manager and the team!
Jose Peseiro came into this tournament with a lot of pressure on him and the team, but so far Nigeria have impressed everyone with how they’ve approached each game. It’s important to remember that this team was seen as defensively frail with plenty of attacking talent before the tournament, but that has changed completely – they have conceded only one goal all tournament.
The team are running for each other, they are playing with passion and also showing their quality across the board. It’s so important that we match lesser teams’ intensity – that is where other big sides have come unstuck this tournament.
Osimhen is playing like a proper talisman
We’ve spoken a lot about Victor Osimhen’s troubles in front of goal and how he hasn’t managed to score as many goals as he would have hoped for this tournament, but he’s doing the absolute most for the team in general play which is giving us a real boost.
The way he was pressuring the Cameroon defense, running in behind and laying on chances for his teammates was inspirational. There is more than enough quality in this team to finish chances from all over the pitch and as long as guys like Osimhen are playing for the flag and causing problems for the opposition I’m confident that we’ll continue to get the results we need over the next couple of weeks.
Nigeria to beat Angola: 1.77 at Bet9ja