Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has made one change to the team that threw away a 4-0 lead against Sierra Leone to draw 4-4 five days ago.

Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively report that Rohr has picked Kelechi Iheanacho to lead the attack in the absence of the injured Victor Osimhen.

Iheanacho will be saddled with the responsibility of not just getting the goals for the team but also dropping deep to play in the other players in what will likely be a four man attack when in possession.

Zaidu Sanusi is the biggest casualty from the game on Friday with his spot as the left back of the team handed to Ola Aina who was an unused substitute in the 4-4 draw.

Maduka Okoye retained his position as first choice despite conceding four times against Sierra Leone and he will be protected by three of the players he had in defence with Aina, the only new name introduced to the defence.

Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has made two changes to the team that lost a 4-0 lead against Sierra Leone to draw 4-4 five days ago.

Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively report that Rohr has picked Kelechi Iheanacho to lead the attack in the absence of the injured Victor Osimhen.

Iheanacho will be saddled with the responsibility of not just getting the goals for the team but also dropping deep to play in the other players in what will likely be a four man attack.

The team trained in a 3-5-2 formation with Ola Aina coming in for Ahmed Musa who drops out of the team after his not too impressive showing in the last game.

For now Iheanacho and Aina are the likely changes to the lineup even though they are reports that Rohr is also pondering on playing either of Tyronne Ebuehi or Chidozie Awaziem in defence.

Super Eagles wasted no time in taking the lead when Alex Iwobi smashed home a cross from Samuel Chukwueze less than two minutes into the game.

Victor Osimhen doubled the lead for Nigeria when he finished off a perfect cross from Zaidu Sanusi who made a strong run from deep.

With Sierra Leone still trying to match the pace of the Nigerians, Iwobi finished off a passing sequence with a curved effort which effectively put the game to bed for the Super Eagles.

That lead was quickly extended when Chukwueze raced on to a pass from Osimhen to finish with aplomb after taking out three Leone Stars defender.

With scores at 4-1 in favour of Nigeria, Chukwueze was robbed off the ball after a poorly hit pass from Musa and the Leone Stars took advantage of it to pull a goal back.

They made Nigeria to pay for another sloppy defensive display to pull another goal back with Semi Ajayi who replaced Leon Balogun guilty of ball watching.

Not long from the second goal and with the Nigerian defence all over the place, Sierra Leone pounce to score another before finally drawing level leaving the Eagles in disarray.

The starting lineup of the senior national team of Nigeria for the AFCON 2021 qualifiers against Sierra Leone later today has been confirmed.

Coach of the team Gernot Rohr has decided to go for a 4-3-3 formation as he aim to maximize the attacking potentials in his team for the game.

Rohr for the third game running dropped on loan Fulham defender Ola Aina from the starting lineup leaving the former England youth international unhappy.

Kevin Akpoguma was picked by the coach to start at right back ahead of the duo of Aina and Tyronne Ebuehi who are the natural right back in the squad.

Camp sources reveal that Aina is unhappy with his recent bench role which saw him benched in both friendly games against Algeria and Tunisia respectively .

Below is the starting lineup.

Maduka Okoye
Kevin Akpoguma
Zaidu Sanusi
Leon Balogun
William Troost Ekong
Oghenekaro Etebo
Joe Aribo
Alex Iwobi
Ahmed Musa
Samuel Chukwueze
Victor Osimhen

Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr left some questions unanswered yesterday during the final training session of the team.

Rohr lined the players in a 4-3-3 formation and later reverted to a 4-2-4 during the course of the training and as he switched formations he also switched players.

In the 4-2-4 set up , Semi Ajayi was played as the defensive midfielder with Oghenekaro Etebo as his midfield partner. Kevin Akpoguma also played as right back.

In the set up Alex Iwobi was deployed as a left winger with Kelechi Iheanacho just behind the main striker Victor Osimhen who was flanked by Samuel Chukwueze and Ahmed Musa.

However when the coach reverted to 4-3-3, he handed Ola Aina the right back with Iheanacho dropping out in attack and Iwobi took his role as the man behind the main striker in Victor Osimhen.

Ajayi was also sacrificed for Joe Aribo who was deployed in midfield alongside the duo of Iwobi and Etebo. They played 4-3-3 for most part of the session.

Nigeria had their last training session ahead of today’s AFCON 2021 qualifiers with coach Gernot lining up the players against each other in a practice match.

Rohr separated the players into two groups of 11 each and had them go up against each other as he continue to test formations ahead of the 5pm kick off against Sierra Leone.

One team was packed fill with most of the players expected to start today while the other had players who are likely going to be named on the bench.

Owngoalnigeria.com will tag the team likely to start as team A while the one with expected substitutes with he tagged team B. The final line up will be up soon on this same portal.

Team A

Maduka Okoye
Ola Aina/ Kevin Akpoguma
Zaidu Sanusi
Leon Balogun
William Troost Ekong
Oghenekaro Etebo
Joe Aribo
Alex Iwobi
Ahmed Musa
Samuel Chukwueze
Victor Osimhen

Team B

Sebastian Osigwe/ Daniel Akpeyi
Tyronne Ebuehi
Jamilu Collins
Kevin Akpoguma/ Ola Aina
Semi Ajayi
Shehu Abdullahi
Chidera Ejuke
Paul Onuachu
Kelechi Iheanacho
Chidozie Awaziem
Emmanuel Dennis

Napoli and Super Eagles of Nigeria forward Victor Osimhen says he is on the right path to becoming a legend with the senior national team of Nigeria.

The 21 year old is now the first choice striker of the senior national team of Nigeria with four goals in his last five games for the team. A tally he is expected to extend when they take on Sierra Leone tomorrow in the 2021 AFCON qualifiers.

Beyond that, the Napoli record signing has his sight on Yekini’s record of 37 international goals which makes him the all time top scorer of the senior national team of Nigeria.

According to Osimhen who was the top scorer at the 2015 U17 World Youth Championship with ten goals, equaling and surpassing the record of Yekini is achievable.

“I think I will always say this. For me to fill in the legend late Rashidi Yekini shoe is kind of heavy for me but I think also I’m on the right path towards this direction and I think if I’m injury free I can achieve this feat but it never going to be easy but with the confidence the coach have in me and the fans also supporting me, It’s achievable but for now”, he said at the pre match conference ahead of tomorrow’s game.

“I just want to keep on helping the team, keep on doing well with my clubside and also the national team which is important. I’m really looking forward to achieving this feat but it’s never going to be easy when you consider what he did for the national team and he made a name for himself all over the world .

“For me it’s a huge step for me but by the special grace of God I’m going to achieve it and also pass it”.

As preparations continue ahead of tomorrow’s game against Sierra Leone, the goalkeepers of the Nigerian team were giving some form of drills during yesterday’s session.

The three goalkeepers in camp as at the time of filing in this reports were subjected to be at the receiving end of shooting before the players were separated into two groups for a practice game.

Although only Maduka Okoye and Sebastain Osigwe took part in the practice game, Ikechukwu Ezenwa who sat out that part of the session was part of the shooting drills.

During the drills, Okoye confirmed his top shape with strings of saves particularly when it comes to balls hit low on the ground. His reaction after making a punch was also top notch.

Ezenwa looked off the pace as expected due to lack of match practice as the Nigerian League has been on hold since March and it showed in his game as he was beaten more times than any other.

Osigwe who was called up to the team for the first time showed some good foot work when it comes to making saves and his grip was solid. He made a finger tip save that drew applause from the technical crew.

Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has explained why the trio of Semi Ajayi, Victor Osimhen and Jamilu Collins trained separately from the rest of the squad.

The trio took part in warm up drills with the players before they were separated into two groups for a short practice game with emphasis on finishing in tight spaces.

However the trio of Ajayi, Collins and Osimhen didn’t join in the practice game as they were put through their paces by one of the assistant coaches of the team.

Explaining the reason behind it, Rohr said it was due to the long distance that they travelled before arriving camp yesterday afternoon but they will train with the rest of the team today.

“ Osimhen, Ajayi and Collins didn’t train with the team because of their late arrival in camp from traveling long distances. We will train with them tomorrow ahead of the game on Friday. We have all but two of the players we invited as we are still expecting Shehu Abdullahi and Daniel Akpeyi”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.

Yesterday evening training session of the Super Eagles saw the team take on each other in a practice game using half the length of the pitch with emphasis on making use of ball and scoring from right position.

Coach Gernot Rohr divided the players into two different groups and had them take on each other in a session which had 16 outfield players taking part and two goalkeepers.

With the trio of Shehu Abdullahi, and Daniel Akpeyi yet to arrive during the session, Rohr worked with the players who had arrived camp but left three out and Ikechukwu Ezenwa also sat out the session.

The emphasis of the session was goal scoring in tight position as the team used just half of the length of the pitch for one house, fifteen minutes after spending fifteen minutes to warm up.

Kelechi Iheanacho was particularly impressive with his finishing as he buried four out of the five attempts he made during the session.

Captain is the team Ahmed Musa was also very impressive with his finishing with three of his efforts finding the back of the net. One of his goal was a spectacular long range effort which flew past Sebastain Osigwe.

Samuel Chukwueze and Paul Onuachu were also successful with their efforts and among the defenders it was Ola Aina that made the most impression in front of goal as he used his both feet to finish smartly .