Nigeria vs Egypt 1-0

[OJI]

Nigeria hand Egypt their first defeat in the AFCON group stages in 18 years!

[Bigpokey24]

see how them both dey try catch them breaths

[bamenda boy]

Massive room for improvement in this team having successfully navigated the first game.

With those two towers in central midfield we should've severely punished Egypt on the counter, with more composed play...

Only team I've seen with comparable power so far is Cameroon.

Way better than Cameroon. They could barely beat Burkina.

You think Burkinafaso na small team eh?

[green4life]

they stole the MOTM from Aribo. that boy was so so solid. respect.
Everyone was good today.

Work on crossing for everyone, work on decision making in the third and we win afcon.

All the forwards kept making poor decisions , and the one cross that Simon delivered 1/2 well is the one we scored from , the cross did not beat the first defender but the guy headed it to Aribo becaus ehe also could not head it out ( not enough power on the cross ) ..the rest is now history.

I had typed before that that simon crosses need more height and less power. he had too much power behind the crosses and he kept doing it over and over kai !!

Moses despite playing very well today, his crosses and final balls are just so poor.

A guy like Lookman will kill Moses in this aspect of the game. This is also where Victor excelled for us.

But he lacks Simon's box to box work rate and overall physical/skill combo. The grass isn't always greener

[oloye]

Egu need to have a word with those players who made those silly decisions,players like that get coaches fired. We had the opportunity to bury the Egyptians below 6ft,but those silly decisions allowed the Pharaohs to return from their pursuit. Especially that Ejuke or whatever is his name,I can forgive one silly mistake,but when a player makes the same mistake 3 times within 10 mins ,it says a lot about the IQ of the player.

[green4life]

Egu need to have a word with those players who made those silly decisions,players like that get coaches fired. We had the opportunity to bury the Egyptians below 6ft,but those silly decisions allowed the Pharaohs to return from their pursuit. Especially that Ejuke or whatever is his name,I can forgive one silly mistake,but when a player makes the same mistake 3 times within 10 mins ,it says a lot about the IQ of the player.

Going by that Youtube interview on SE tactics, you can tell that Eguavoen likes Ejuke a lot because he reminds him of the 1994 type players. I was hoping that the time spent in Russia would've helped him but so far I haven't seen any growth in his game. Anyway, miracles do happen and it's our opening game so fingers crossed.

[vancity eagle]

there was a quick break at the end where I was screaming at EJuke for not passing, but on replay I saw that there was no square ball on for him. There were like 3 defenders scrambling back that would have easily intercepted any pass. The shot was actually the best option.

[danfo driver]

see how them both dey try catch them breaths

They have finally seen what being a winner tastes like

[vancity eagle]

they stole the MOTM from Aribo. that boy was so so solid. respect.
Everyone was good today.

Work on crossing for everyone, work on decision making in the third and we win afcon.

All the forwards kept making poor decisions , and the one cross that Simon delivered 1/2 well is the one we scored from , the cross did not beat the first defender but the guy headed it to Aribo becaus ehe also could not head it out ( not enough power on the cross ) ..the rest is now history.

I had typed before that that simon crosses need more height and less power. he had too much power behind the crosses and he kept doing it over and over kai !!

Moses despite playing very well today, his crosses and final balls are just so poor.

A guy like Lookman will kill Moses in this aspect of the game. This is also where Victor excelled for us.

But he lacks Simon's box to box work rate and overall physical/skill combo. The grass isn't always greener

Simon's workrate is great. Today was his best dribbling display I have seen for him in SE. He tormented the Egyptians. Problem is that is final ball, whether on the ground or in the air is piss poor. You cannot succeed with that type of forward player despite all his hard work.

I gaurantee you we will score more goals once Lookman gets into the setup.

He has a much better end product than ALL of our wingers. Simon and Ejuke are both poor in this regard. I will take Lookman over them any day so long as he is willing to hustle.

[green4life]

there was a quick break at the end where I was screaming at EJuke for not passing, but on replay I saw that there was no square ball on for him. There were like 3 defenders scrambling back that would have easily intercepted any pass. The shot was actually the best option.

The pass was on earlier but he held onto the ball too long and left himself with only 1 option to shoot from a tight angle. Simply not smart. He had passing options along the way in midfield running with him. Use your skill to create a passing angle. Pass and run into space.

[vancity eagle]

there was a quick break at the end where I was screaming at EJuke for not passing, but on replay I saw that there was no square ball on for him. There were like 3 defenders scrambling back that would have easily intercepted any pass. The shot was actually the best option.

The pass was on earlier but he held onto the ball too long and left himself with only 1 option to shoot from a tight angle. Simply not smart. He had passing options along the way in midfield running with him. Use your skill to create a passing angle. Pass and run into space.

fair enough.

He needs to keep his head up and learn to pass.

We should have beaten Egypt at least 3-0 today.

[oloye]

there was a quick break at the end where I was screaming at EJuke for not passing, but on replay I saw that there was no square ball on for him. There were like 3 defenders scrambling back that would have easily intercepted any pass. The shot was actually the best option.

The pass was on earlier but he held onto the ball too long and left himself with only 1 option to shoot from a tight angle. Simply not smart. He had passing options along the way in midfield running with him. Use your skill to create a passing angle. Pass and run into space.

Thank you. African players just don't know how to pick those moments ,like English players they just put their head down and go for it like donkeys. But once in a while players like Finidi show up and demonstrate that football is a game of athleticism and brains.

Everything in football has to do with athleticism timing and precision. When a player does the same thing over and over again,I give up on them.

[Elexus]

We have to temper our expectations and make allowances for the team, the Pharaoh's team Eagles faced today. The Pharaohs were really bad. I think It was their coach that set them up that way. Coach Quirox's first instinct is to defend. He was ultra-defensive today. He set them up to sit deep. That kind of formation might be alright if you scored first. But to come from behind against a pacy team like Nigeria was going to be a tall order.
He learned this trade when he coached Iran. But Iran has the defensive discipline, unlike the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs cannot play 90 minutes without making several mistakes.
Let's enjoy the victory. Not every team is going to allow us that much time with the ball.

[Cellular]

My only disappointment today was Chukwueze. Hope he starts the next match and Egu doesn't replace him with Ejuke.

I kept waiting for him to explode on his wing like Simon was doing on the left but the bobo didn't get the message to show up for the party.

But we didn't play with both wings as a matter of strategy. Dude hardly hugged the touchline like Simon did. He helped constrict the midfield by pinching inside.

Try watching the game again and you will see it.

[balo]

Dang. Missed the game.

For real?!? Please make sure you miss the rest of the SE games too. I see a correlation hia

lol. I won't miss the next one and we are winning it.

[Cellular]

If Ejuke will look up.....he will be one hell of a player

Difficult to train that out of him now. Old habits die hard.

He is young….he will always dribble but can be productive….

We've seen it before. Pius Ikedia.

Ejuke rarely looks up when he is running with the ball. That would be impossible to change. You just follow his career and see.

It can actually be coached out of him.

There are specific drills to coach that out of a young player.

Even with Simon's poor crossing skills.

[icee]

We have to temper our expectations and make allowances for the team, the Pharaoh's team Eagles faced today. The Pharaohs were really bad. I think It was their coach that set them up that way. Coach Quirox's first instinct is to defend. He was ultra-defensive today. He set them up to sit deep. That kind of formation might be alright if you scored first. But to come from behind against a pacy team like Nigeria was going to be a tall order.
He learned this trade when he coached Iran. But Iran has the defensive discipline, unlike the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs cannot play 90 minutes without making several mistakes.
Let's enjoy the victory. Not every team is going to allow us that much time with the ball.

Some balance to calm us a bit

[Field Marshall Ogolo]

Nigeria hand Egypt their first defeat in the AFCON group stages in 18 years!

Nigeria does not play exciting soccer anymore. Those short passes are unlike us. We expected sudden bursts of speed and long passes from Nigeria. This style of boring soccer is unacceptable! Not a single home-based player!

[Field Marshall Ogolo]

see how them both dey try catch them breaths

They have finally seen what being a winner tastes like

18 years is a long time to wait.

[Goalgetter]

If Ejuke will look up.....he will be one hell of a player

Difficult to train that out of him now. Old habits die hard.

He is young….he will always dribble but can be productive….

We've seen it before. Pius Ikedia.

Ejuke rarely looks up when he is running with the ball. That would be impossible to change. You just follow his career and see.

It can actually be coached out of him.

There are specific drills to coach that out of a young player.

Even with Simon's poor crossing skills.

Ejuke wow! The guy runs with the ball like a supersonic jet. We need to play that guy more.. Looks unstoppable to me. Nwakali is a very cerebral player. You watch how he covers spaces and does the simple things really well. Released the ball to set Ejuke flying for the last counter.

[vancity eagle]

We have to temper our expectations and make allowances for the team, the Pharaoh's team Eagles faced today. The Pharaohs were really bad. I think It was their coach that set them up that way. Coach Quirox's first instinct is to defend. He was ultra-defensive today. He set them up to sit deep. That kind of formation might be alright if you scored first. But to come from behind against a pacy team like Nigeria was going to be a tall order.
He learned this trade when he coached Iran. But Iran has the defensive discipline, unlike the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs cannot play 90 minutes without making several mistakes.
Let's enjoy the victory. Not every team is going to allow us that much time with the ball.

I knew Egypt were beatable. I saw Angola take the game to them both home and away and were undone by poor finishing. We will see how Egypt responds in their next 2 games to know how good they actually are.

My hunch is the kind of performance we put in today would trouble any team at this tournament, so I dont necessarily think it was a case of a "poor Egypt"

[ohsee]

This is a line-up will expect a foreigner that has never seen us play produce.....

ARIBO is not a CM.....Thats what Onyeka is there for and has more lungs, Aribo is better technically

I understand Simon...... But i would have preferred Ejuke or Iwobi because our defense is porous and our best cause of defending today is attack. If Salah runs at our defense....he scores

Iheanacho....Love the guy but we have tried him in that position several times and it never worked.....Aribo would have been a better choice....

BTW.....this is a defensive line-up

Only attacking players there are Samu and the strikers.....I sincerely hope that i am wrong....

Anyways.....Good luck to the Super Eagles

Anyway, hindsight is 20/20. Who knows what I would have said if I had come here BEFORE the game.

[ohsee]

Just placed a quick last minute bet of $10 on Nigeria.

Shoulda placed more.