The senior national team of Nigeria got their 2025 AFCON qualifiers off to a flying start with a 3-0 win over Benin Republic at the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Uyo, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

We rate the players on parade for Nigeria in the win which will go down as a revenge on the 1-2 defeat they suffered in the hands of the same team three months ago in the world cup qualifiers.

Stanley Nwabali – Didn’t have much to do but when he was called up he stood strong with a powerful punch from a deadly free kick in the first half and a smart save in the second half….. 7/10

Ola Aina – Picked up from where he left off at the AFCON with a above average performance by combining his defensive duties with forays upfront and also delivered two telling crosses that weren’t utilized….. 7/10

Bruno Onyemaechi – Slotted in with ease at left back and put up a showing that not many expected. Extremely comfortable on the ball and used it to good effect….. 7/10

Semi Ajayi – Moved the ball quickly and spread it nicely, one of which led to the opening goal of the game scored by Lookman….. 7/10

Calvin Bassey – Not quite comfortable like he was at the AFCON in a back three. Almost gave away a penalty after his misjudgment of a ball in flight. Got substituted in the second half as he became the target….. 6/10

William Troost-Ekong – The MVP of the AFCON hit the ground running but somehow looked off the pace a bit, although didn’t lose any aerial or ground duel….. 7/10

Wilfred Ndidi – Redeemed himself with the assist for the third goal scorer by Victor Osimhen. He had an underwhelming performance and asked to be subbed off….. 7/10

Alex Iwobi – Another who got subbed off after working his socks off for the team. Denied an assist by Lookman after failing to make the best use of a well weighted over the top pass. Not one of his best games but did a lot for the team….. 7/10

Samuel Chukwueze – A mixed bag of pleasure and pain as his decision making in key areas let him down. An improved performance though but it could have been better….. 6.5/10

Ademola Lookman – Simply the star of the team at the moment. Took his first goal with the finish of a man in confident. A looping header for his second to kill the game just a few days after he was nominated for the Balon d’or….. 8/10

Victor Boniface – Held the ball up nicely and was unfortunate not to score. Worked really hard keeping the defence of the visitors busy all through….. 7/10

Substitutes:

Fisayo Dele-Bashiru – Started the move that led to the second goal. Always looking to play forward which was key to the two goals scored when he was introduced….. 6.5/10

Olisa Ndah – Looked jittery and took a while to get going which almost proved costly….. 5/10

Victor Osimhen – Scored a goal that will no doubt put some nerves to rest after a very troubled week regarding his transfer from Napoli. Could have scored a brace but clearly lacking match fitness….. 7/10

Moses Simon – Brought life to the team with his directness and pace. His well weighted ball to Lookman killed the game and should get a start away to Rwanda in three days time….. 7/10

The senior national team of Nigeria got their 2025 AFCON qualifiers off to a flying start with a 3-0 win over Benin Republic at the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Uyo, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Smarting from a 1-2 defeat suffered in the hands of the same opponent in their last game which was the world cup qualifiers three months ago. Super Eagles had to wait till the final minutes of the first half before taking the lead.

Ademola Lookman ensured the Super Eagles go into the half time break leading when he latched on to a loose ball, and showed remarkable composure to hold off his markers before burying his effort.

Substitute Victor Osimhen ensured there was no way back for the visitors when he rifled home a low ball from Wilfred Ndidi to put the game to bed. He was close to making it three but with the goalkeeper at his mercy he failed to sort his feet quickly.

Lookman grabbed his brace when substitute Moses Simon picked him out with a well weighted ball to complete a 3-0 drubbing of the team led by former coach of the Nigerian team, Gernot Rohr.

The Super Eagles will leave for Kigali tomorrow for their second game of the series against Rwanda, buoyed with their first competitive win since losing the AFCON final 1-2 to Cote d’Ivoire in February.

Barring a last minute change of mind the interim coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen has picked the players who will start in today’s AFCON qualifiers game against Benin Republic in Uyo, OwnGoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Eguavoen who will be in charge of the team for the games against Benin Republic later today, and away to Rwanda in three days time in Kigali has maintained the core of the players who have been part of the team for a while.

He also reverted to the 3-4-3 formation which worked for the team at the AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, where they went all the way to the final before losing 1-2 to the host.

Another big decision he took was to drop the team’s top striker Victor Osimhen for Bayer Leverkusen forward Victor Boniface as the arrow head of the team’s attack.

In goal Stanley Nwabali starts with the trio of Calvin Bassey, captain William Troost-Ekong and Semi playing as the three center backs like they did at the AFCON. Ola Aina will operate as the right wing back while Bruno Onyemaechi will be the left wing back .

In the midfield, the duo of Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi will anchor behind a front three of Ademola Lookman, Samuel Chukwueze and Victor Boniface.

Starting XI:

Nwabali

Ekong

Bassey

Ajayi

Aina

Bruno

Ndidi

Iwobi

Lookman

Chukwueze

Boniface

Interim head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen says the decision on who will start in goal against Benin Republic between Maduka Okoye and Stanley Nwabali is giving him headache, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Okoye lost his number one spot two years ago with Nwabali displacing Francis Uzoho to become the team’s starting goalkeeper at the AFCON. A position he has held even after the tournament, where Nigeria went all the way to the final before losing 1-2 to the host Cote d’Ivoire.

Coming into today’s AFCON qualifiers game against Benin Republic in Uyo, Okoye pushed his case to reclaim his spot with a string of impressive performances for Italian Serie A side Udinese. He still remains the only Nigerian goalkeeper getting regular run of games in a top five European League.

Eguavoen was asked if the form of Okoye is forcing him into thinking about reinstated him as number 1, the coach said it’s a welcome headache not just for the duo but the entire team due to the presence of quality players in all positions.

“The headache in the entire team. 23 quality players, some quality players that are also not in the team right now.

“So, it is headache for the coach but the good thing is that they are all fit and we can always play with 11, the required number of players and the good thing is that the players also know that.”

Ade Emmanuel

The interim coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen has picked Boavista defender Bruno Onyemaechi among the players who will start today’s AFCON 2025 qualifiers game against Benin Republic, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Eguavoen who will be leading the team in the two first games of the qualifiers with today’s game, followed by another away to Rwanda in three days time has decided to play with three center backs.

In the setup, Onyemaechi will be having his sixth start for the senior national team of Nigeria and also increasing his caps to seven operating as the left wing back in a 3-4-3 formation.

Ola Aina is likely to occupy the other spot as the right wing back just in front of a back three that will be Semi Ajayi, William Troost-Ekong and Calvin Bassey per what we exclusively gathered.

It was the same formation that the team played at the AFCON and got all the way to the final before losing 1-2 to the host Cote d’Ivoire. Eguavoen is reverting to it in a bid to halt the poor run of the team since the AFCON, which has seen them win just one of the four games since the tournament.

Interim head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen has decided against starting the top striker of the team in today’s AFCON 2025 qualifiers game against Benin Republic, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Osimhen arrived in the camp of the team 48 hours to the game, no thanks to the drama surrounding his stay at Napoli which eventually ended with his loan move to Turkish side Galatasaray.

For today’s game against the Cheetahs of Benin Republic, he has been sidelined for Victor Boniface with his lack of match fitness right from pre season down to the start of the season picked as the main reason behind the decision to start Boniface.

Boniface will play alongside Ademola Lookman with one of Samuel Chukwueze or Moses Simon picked on the right in what will be a front three. Osimhen is sure to start from the bench.

However he could yet play some part to help build his fitness as he is expected to be on from the start again Rwanda in Kigali on the 10th of September .

Interim head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen will make five changes to the Super Eagles lineup that lost 1-2 to Benin Republic three months ago , when both teams meet in the AFCON qualifiers tomorrow, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

The Super Eagles will be looking to reassert their dominance over their West African neighbors after suffering a first ever defeat last time out in the world cup qualifiers.

Super Eagles have not had the best of build up to the game with the entire issue of a replacement for departed coach Finidi George ending in a dramatic way , after the coach announced as his replacement made a u-turn on the agreement in principle following breakdown over tax payments.

Eguavoen the technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was drafted in for the games against Benin Republic and Rwanda on the 7th and 10th of September respectively.

His first task in Uyo will see him try to erase the memories of the last time he handled the team in the world cup qualifiers playoff, where they got beaten by Ghana and missed out on a ticket to the world cup.

We can exclusively reveal that from the team which Benin defeated under Finidi George, Eguavoen will make five changes with two due to the unavailability of the players.

The duo of Terem Moffi and Bright Osayi-Samuel are unavailable leaving Victor Boniface and Ola Aina as the favourite to take their spot in the team that started the last game.

Benjamin Tanimu will make way for William Troost-Ekong who will partner Semi Ajayi in defence, with Calvin Bassey dropping to the left back spot. However Stanley Nwabali will continue in goal despite Maduka Okoye’s fine form for Udinese in the build up to the game.

Samuel Chukwueze will also be relegated to the bench with Moses Simon taking his spot on the right side of attack. Frank Onyeka will come in for goal scorer Raphael Onyedika in the midfield.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Newly signed Galatasaray forward Victor Osimhen should tender a public apology to the former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Finidi George before playing for the team again after his public rant against the coach.

This opinion was shared by former Super Eagles defender Emeka Ezeugo who said the manner which Osimhen insulted Finidi and other followers of the team should be properly addressed, before the AFCON qualifiers games against Benin Republic and Rwanda respectively.

Expected to play in both games, Osimhen went live on his Instagram page to call out the former coach following a report, that says his commitment to the Super Eagles was questioned by the coach after he missed the world cup qualifiers with a knock.

” I saw the video even yesterday and we are going to let a player with such low manners for his coach play again for the team just like that ?. I don’t think it’s proper unless he is footing the bills of some big wigs in the NFF”, Ezeugo told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

” Of course you can’t stop a player from playing for his country but you have to instill discipline by doing the right thing. Everyone is acting like nothing happened and it shouldn’t be the case. Osimhen should use the same channel to apologize to not just Finidi but Nigerians. That was classless”, he stated.

Ezeugo who played for Nigeria at the 1994 World Cup also said the senior players in the team should be ashamed of themselves, and should share the blame for the striker’s misconduct to the former coach.

” When you have senior players in the team like the captain and the leadership group and something like this is about to be swept under the carpet, then you have to question their competence. In my days this won’t happen and elsewhere it shouldn’t happen even now. The leadership group need to question themselves shamefully”.

Coach of Benin Republic Gernot Rohr says his team will be full of confidence going into tomorrow’s AFCON 2025 qualifiers game against the Super Eagles of Nigeria at the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Uyo, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Rohr led the senior national team of Nigeria for a period of almost seven years before his shock exit a few weeks to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, which was delayed and held in Cameroon in 2022.

He engineered the Nigerian neighbors to their first ever win over Nigeria three months ago and yesterday upon arrive in Uyo, a city that he is well aware of the coach said he will be excited to meet with his former players, but above all he is eyeing a win.

” It will be nice to meet with my boys in the Super Eagles. The team hasn’t changed much from the one I left behind two years ago, so technically they are still my boys, but we will keep all of that aside on the pitch on Saturday”, Rohr told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

” Nigeria have players in big teams unlike my team , but we have shown three months ago that we can win against any team. It is what we are hoping against the Super Eagles even though we know it will be difficult because they are playing at home”.

Interim head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen has perfected tactics and formation ahead of the team’s AFCON 2025 qualifiers against Benin Republic in Uyo, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Eguavoen will start his fourth stint as coach of the team on Saturday with the aim of ending the team’s unimpressive run of one win in four games , which includes two defeats and one draw. A form which led to the departure of Finidi George as coach three months ago.

Heading into the game, we exclusively gathered that the coach has decided to play a 4-3-3- system, a departure from the 4-4-2 played by erstwhile coach Finidi in the only defeat Nigeria have suffered against their neighbors in the history of senior international football.

In his plans so far he has used team’s holding midfielder Wilfred Ndidi in an advanced role in training, something similar to the present way he plays for Leicester City in the English Premier League. A role he made his own in their successful promotion bid back from the championship following relegation.

The idea is said to have come about after a chat with Ndidi, where he confirmed to the coach that he is more comfortable in an advanced role although he is open to playing in whatever role the coach feels he can be of help to the team.