Nigeria’s Super Eagles played out a nail-biting 1-1 draw against the Sharks of Cape Verde to secure passage into the final round of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The three-time African champions, Nigeria’s Super Eagles survived intense pressure from Cape Verde, but thanks to the energetic and brave effort from Victor Osimhen who scored Super Eagles’ only goal and picked up both the Man-of-the-Match and Most Valuable Player awards.
Before the start of the game, the Super Eagles stood atop Group C with 12 points, with the visitors at 10, and both knew it would be a mammoth fight all through the evening.
Following the victory over Liberia during the weekend, the Super Eagles went into Tuesday’s match with the knowledge that a draw would be enough to send them through to the final round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr stuck with the 3-5-2 formation with Osimhen and Ighalo spearheading the attack.
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The game started brightly for the Eagles after Victor Osimhen gave them the lead in the 1st minute. The Napoli frontman has been in fine form this season with this being his 15th goal in 21 appearances this season. However, the joy was short-lived as the Sharks equalised following a corner kick in the 5th minute.
The Super Eagles kept creating chances to take the lead but were met by an inspired Vozinha in goal, the Cape Verdean goalkeeper who made some incredible saves to keep his team in the hunt for qualification.
The Super Eagles will head to the knockout round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers hoping to secure their ticket to Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Enthusiastic and energetic fans were on ground to support the Super Eagles. MTN Nigeria was also present at the stadium, turning up the viewing experience for the football fans. The telco giant provided an avenue for the fans to enjoy themselves before the match by providing the popular console game FIFA for the fans to engage in. MTN Nigeria has stated its plans to continue to support the Super Eagles on to victory with belief that they will inevitably make it to Qatar in 2022.
Following MTN partnership with the Nigeria Football Federation(NFF) since September, 2021 making them the official communications sponsor of the national football teams, MTN has actively shown its commitment towards the progress and advancement of Nigerian football.
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