Super Eagles of Nigeria last night at the Estadio Municipal Aderito Sena, Mindelo established command of their Qatar2022 World Cup qualifying Group C with two wins in two games after edging the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde in a close and tense encounter.
The Eagles had fallen behind as early as the 19th minute when the hosts shot into the lead via their danger man, Dylan Tavares. However, it took 10 minutes for Nigeria’s and Napoli ace, Victor Osimhen to restore parity and it became a ding dong affair, with the Eagles having to endure some nervy defending at times to keep the Sharks at bay.
Nigeria was to take the lead in a bizarre and fortuitous circumstance when a high back pass from almost the centre circle by Kenny Rocha Santos was allowed to bounce and beat his keeper in the 76th minute for the eventual winner.
Despite some close calls, the highly depleted Eagles held on for the important win in the game that marked captain Ahmed Musa’s 100th cap for the national team.
Meanwhile, Gernot Rohr had disclosed that the Super Eagles would have no problem playing on the synthetic pitch of the stadium.
Rohr’s side arrived in Cape Verde on Monday morning for their second Group C game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The 2013 African champions had their first training session on Monday evening before Gernot Rohr faced the media for his pre-match conference.
A lot has been said in the media about Cape Verde’s artificial pitch, but Gernot Rohr is of the opinion that it is better than that of Teslim Balogun Stadium, where they played Liberia last Friday.
“It’s a different pitch because we are not used to playing on a synthetic pitch. Some of the players did it before in Nigeria, but now they play in clubs where there’s no synthetic pitch.
“We already used it in Lagos, the synthetic pitch, but not exactly the same one. This one is softer and I think it is better to play football on this pitch than in the second half in Lagos in the last game when the pitch was very heavy.” he told the media.

By: Gabriel Nwanetanya