NIGERIA 1 V 1 EGYPT - FT

[obaGol]

[rasak74]

SE played well today but I will put the blame of this draw on Sia1. At the dying stages one thing he should have been shouting at the players constantly is to remind them to keep their shape. Egypt was not threatening our defense nor were they putting us under immense pressure. They were looking for us to let our guard down so that they could take advantage and so they did. Sia1 has to be vocal like Amoo yesterday. Immediately that player went down in the dying minutes you could see all of our players began to switch off and believing the game had been been won. Football is 90 minutes and you play until the final whistle.

In the return leg I have little hope. Egypt is going to put us under pressure as they are at home and will be more confident of picking up a victory than they were here.

Who told you he wasn't shouting at them? Abeg stop doing beer parlor coaching joor.

[Its a Goal]

I know the winner of each group qualifies but what about 2nd place? That is the most likely position we are going finish in the group.

[Odas]

I am surprised that some folks are claiming that Egypt will play for a draw. Egypt? In stadia with 120,000+ mad ravaging lunatic Egyptians reducing the ref to shreds everytime he blows against Egypt?

If we draw in Egypt, I will take it. Egypt is very difficult to beat at home.

We dug a hole for ourselves at home, we have to go do it in Egypt whether we like it or not. It is a TASK that MUST be done

[Metho scorpion]

Am very sure we will win in Egypt. This team has nothing special. The key to winning is Mikel and the defence.

We couldn't win at home yet you lot are so sure we will win away from home? Where's the rationale behind such thinking? Abi you are just hoping or what?

...can you imagine the mind soccer of some...? Expecting to beat Egypt in the face of home crowd...? fully loaded Security should be on the pitch with the ref...besides how can we beat this Egypt...?

[Its a Goal]

SE played well today but I will put the blame of this draw on Sia1. At the dying stages one thing he should have been shouting at the players constantly is to remind them to keep their shape. Egypt was not threatening our defense nor were they putting us under immense pressure. They were looking for us to let our guard down so that they could take advantage and so they did. Sia1 has to be vocal like Amoo yesterday. Immediately that player went down in the dying minutes you could see all of our players began to switch off and believing the game had been been won. Football is 90 minutes and you play until the final whistle.

In the return leg I have little hope. Egypt is going to put us under pressure as they are at home and will be more confident of picking up a victory than they were here.

Who told you he wasn't shouting at them? Abeg stop doing beer parlor coaching joor.

How are you sure he was? I can tell you for a fact he wasn't vocal at the touchline like Amoo was yesterday.

[Odas]

... a picture is worth more than a thousand words (origins unknown). This picture says it all.

[metalalloy]

Top 2 qualify no?

If so this group a formality.

No. Group winner and two best overall qualifier. We are currently third best overall qualifier but will surely drop after the games are played this weekend. Key is to get a result in Egypt

[maceo4]

I am surprised that some folks are claiming that Egypt will play for a draw. Egypt? In stadia with 120,000+ mad ravaging lunatic Egyptians reducing the ref to shreds everytime he blows against Egypt?

If we draw in Egypt, I will take it. Egypt is very difficult to beat at home.

We dug a hole for ourselves at home, we have to go do it in Egypt whether we like it or not. It is a TASK that MUST be done

Unless you correct the mistakes from the home game its going to be difficult to win away. And we know Siasia won't change, so lets just hope Mikel can handle midfield all by himself in the second leg...

[mystic]

I'm not sure why Oboabona went down. Was he really hurt or was that his attempt at running down the clock?

Cos seriously that was ill timed. Your goalie has the ball in his hands and you know he has six seconds to get rid of the ball. I would say that move destabilized the defense long enough for Egypt to capitalize.

But beating Egypt in Cairo is doable.

Hopefully Ikeme has learnt his lesson. He threw the ball away for a throw-in because Oboabona was on the floor. The Egyptians took the throw-in and punished us.

I couldn't agree more. I thought it was daft of Ikeme to throw that ball out for a throw in.

[olumide]

Otitokoro...I am pretty sure Mikel had nothing to do with playing Salah onside. He was challenging the passer who slid the ball to Salah in acres of space. Watching again, the entire defence was out of sorts (possibly, as someone mentioned, we were expecting the ball back?). Both CBs were pushing up too late to try and set the line, I think Oboabona played him onside in the end, but both were lost. The left back also completely lost track of Salah's position.

Blaming Moses is ridiculous. It was not a simple tap-in. He had to run quite wide and place it in at an acute angle. He couldn't just smash it. He did his job. The Egyptian defender did his better. Even still, 1-0 would have been enough if SE closed up shop and defended properly.

[globalinksnn]

bottom line is that we have a very very good attacking team. they can only improve and will become very deadly in the nearest future. abit disappointed with the draw, but the way our attack played is very encouraging. onazi is back for the next game. thus our midfield will be more stable.

[vancity eagle]

The return leg is ours. Siasia only need to make few changes at the back. For example, he should bring in some of the Under 23 players who defeated the Brazilian Under 23 team. Moreover, a player like Iwobi should start in the return leg.

I don't see why Iwobi has to start. The starters today were alright. Iwobi needs to be eased in gradually. He's still quite young, and African football is something else. We didn't take our chances quite well, esp that Victor's chance.

Well played by the boys though.

You don't see why Iwobi has to start ?

How about as soon as he stepped on the pitch he created the best chance we had all game. In fact the only clear cut chance.

You would rather have the useless Musa running around aimlessly with poor crosses and passing.

Iwobi needs to start. Musa should not even step on the pitch. What a waste of a player.

Moses needs to play a larger role. You can see his quality in creating space when Egypt was packing the defence.

Simon is a baller.

[platinum]

Ol boy, you need to calm down. Between you and tunde42, I'm not sure who is more biased against mikel. The guy played well enough today.

[vancity eagle]

I am surprised that some folks are claiming that Egypt will play for a draw. Egypt? In stadia with 120,000+ mad ravaging lunatic Egyptians reducing the ref to shreds everytime he blows against Egypt?

If we draw in Egypt, I will take it. Egypt is very difficult to beat at home.

If we draw in Egypt we are out. U wanna bet ?

We HAVE to win.

[Its a Goal]

I'm not sure why Oboabona went down. Was he really hurt or was that his attempt at running down the clock?

Cos seriously that was ill timed. Your goalie has the ball in his hands and you know he has six seconds to get rid of the ball. I would say that move destabilized the defense long enough for Egypt to capitalize.

But beating Egypt in Cairo is doable.

Hopefully Ikeme has learnt his lesson. He threw the ball away for a throw-in because Oboabona was on the floor. The Egyptians took the throw-in and punished us.

I couldn't agree more. I thought it was daft of Ikeme to throw that ball out for a throw in.

What should he have done when a team mate was down? Often in such situations the opponent will give the ball back as a sportsmanship gesture but in this case they chose to exploit our naivety. Oboabona was just silly with that antics. He didn't even stay down long enough for medics to come and attend to him. Just comical error in the end cost us the match.

[Sheikh]

Otitokoro...I am pretty sure Mikel had nothing to do with playing Salah onside. He was challenging the passer who slid the ball to Salah in acres of space. Watching again, the entire defence was out of sorts (possibly, as someone mentioned, we were expecting the ball back?). Both CBs were pushing up too late to try and set the line, I think Oboabona played him onside in the end, but both were lost. The left back also completely lost track of Salah's position.

Blaming Moses is ridiculous. It was not a simple tap-in. He had to run quite wide and place it in at an acute angle. He couldn't just smash it. He did his job. The Egyptian defender did his better. Even still, 1-0 would have been enough if SE closed up shop and defended properly.

Ambrose and Oboabona did their best but are waiting to happen disasters. I thought Amuzie did OK but would prefer Echiejile for experience. Shehu was OK. As a unit they were unco-ordinated. Etebo was MOM for me.

[globalinksnn]

well that is very unprofessional by the f....ing Egyptians f...ing Egyptians i said. i hate them to pieces. we must win them in their f...ing backyard

[Bigpokey24]

All i know be say we go qualify

[oloye]

Another left back who had no idea what he is doing and how to keep an eye on his man. Oh well good game, we had our chance to kill the game.

It feels like a defeat. I am flat and bothered.

It was a defeat!

[vancity eagle]

were the Egyptians not supposed to give the ball back to us? in view of the defender injured defender

Yup, unsportsmanlike , but it was the dying seconds and they have missed 3 straight ANC, what do u expect them to do, I would have done the same because I would assume they are trying to waste time, so really we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

[platinum]

I am surprised that some folks are claiming that Egypt will play for a draw. Egypt? In stadia with 120,000+ mad ravaging lunatic Egyptians reducing the ref to shreds everytime he blows against Egypt?

If we draw in Egypt, I will take it. Egypt is very difficult to beat at home.

If we draw in Egypt we are out. U wanna bet ?

We HAVE to win.

Goldleaf, VC is right on this one. A draw in Egypt and it's out of our hands. Of course, since na africa, there's nothing that says they cant drop points to tanzania and/or chad but why hope on that?

On the raving Egyptian fans, lets remember the deal with north african and especially egyptian footie....they will hook or crook to get the result, they're not very much obsessed with performance like we are. These na guys wey if dem lead you for second half, dem go begin time wasting and diving and all manner of trickery. Once you're in their pocket, it's on you to dig your way out, they are happy where they are. I think they'll sit back and wait for us. I also think it's unlikely they'll be wasteful at home so we will have to be on our Ps and Qs defensively, none of this amateur hour stuff.

[mystic]

I am surprised that some folks are claiming that Egypt will play for a draw. Egypt? In stadia with 120,000+ mad ravaging lunatic Egyptians reducing the ref to shreds everytime he blows against Egypt?

If we draw in Egypt, I will take it. Egypt is very difficult to beat at home.

If we draw in Egypt we are out. U wanna bet ?

We HAVE to win.

A draw in Egypt means that we lose control of our destiny and have to watch results in other groups. We really blew it today.