Advertisement

Nigeria vs Guinea-Bissau: Eguavoen speaks on Ighalo, Osimhen ahead of AFCON tie


 

Super Eagles interim manager, Austine Eguavoen, has declared that his team is missing the expertise of Odion Ighalo and Victor Osimhen in front of goal at the ongoing 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, in Cameroon.

Eguavoen said this ahead of Nigeria’s final Group D fixture against Guinea-Bissau on Wednesday.

Ighalo was denied the chance to represent Nigeria at the 2021 AFCON after the former Manchester United star was not released by his club, Al Shabab.

Osimhen, on the other hand, was replaced in Nigeria’s squad for the 2021 AFCON by Slavia Prague’s Peter Olayinka after failing to recover in time from a facial injury.

In the absence of both strikers, Taiwo Awoniyi has led the attack line for Eguavoen’s men against Egypt and Sudan, but the Union Berlin attacker is yet to make much impact in the competition.

The Super Eagles missed a number of good chances in their two AFCON wins against Egypt and Sudan, but Eguavoen admitted things would have been different with Ighalo and Osimhen at his disposal.

“They [Ighalo and Osimhen] are two different players who can actually score two goals out of three chances. Awoniyi and Sadiq are two different types of players too,” Eguavoen said after the team’s training session on Sunday in Garoua.

“That is not to say they can’t score goals. Awoniyi has been scoring goals in the German league and Sadiq as well.

“The good thing is that we are not giving the responsibility to the strikers alone. Other players, too, can score goals for us.

“We have given Aribo the chance to move up the field and he has done that very well. He could have scored one or two goals against Sudan. Anybody can score in our team.

“However, Ighalo and Osimhen are two different players from what we’ve now, that is why we are trying to play to our strengths.”

Post a Comment

0 Comments