Nigeria regathered their pleasure on Thursday evening with a 1-0 victory over hosts Cote d’Ivoire to take them joint high of Group A with 4 factors after two video games on the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
Equatorial Guinea occupy pole place after Emilio Nsue scored the primary hat trick on the event since 2008 to assist his facet sweep previous Guinea Bissau 4-2 within the early afternoon sport on the Alassane Outtara stadium in Abidjan
Hyped as a crunch conflict between west African powerhouses, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire started at a livid tempo.
Victor Osimhen was let out on the left for the primary likelihood of the match however the Napoli striker botched his lob over goalkeeper Yahia Fofana.
Stung by the impertinence, the hosts went down the opposite finish. Stanley Nwabali stopped the counter with a pointy save from Christian Kouamé’s strike.
Kouamé squandered one other alternative three minutes later. However the early flurry gave technique to a fug of warning and sloppiness as each groups failed to search out fluid connections between midfield and assault.
For all of the attacking expertise on show, a defender broke the impasse.
Eight minutes into the second-half, referee Mustapha Ghorbal pointed to the penalty spot after the video assistants highlighted a foul on Osimhen.
Skipper William Ekong stepped up and walloped the ball down the center of Fofana’s objective.
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Response
The partisans riled, the gamers responded with extra urgency. However Ekong was as doughty in defence as he was deft in assault.
Cote d’Ivoire coach Jean-Louis Gasset despatched on Jonathan Bamba for Kouamé in a direct swap of strikers. One other attacker, Nicolas Pepé, entered instead of midfielder Jeremie Boga.
However the ploys introduced no pleasure. Nigeria sat deep and rode their luck to carry on for slender win.
“It wasn’t a simple sport,” stated Osimhen. “We knew the Ivorians have been going to be robust towards us.
“They have quite a lot of high quality gamers from the goalkeeper to the assault however we executed our sport plan and it is a massive win for us.”
Nigeria will face Guinea Bissau of their closing sport within the pool on Monday evening on the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan. A draw will probably be sufficient to take them into the last-16 knockout levels.
The hosts are in a extra precarious place following the setback and might want to beat Equatorial Guinea on Monday to be assured of a spot within the second section. A draw – giving Cote d’Ivoire 4 factors – would in all probability be sufficient to advance them to the last-16 as one of many 4 greatest third-placed groups.
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