Nigeria Thrashes Lesotho 3-0 In Final AFCON Qualifier
The Super Eagles of Nigeria thrashed the Crocodiles of Lesotho 3-0 in its Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final qualifying match at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, with goals from Victor Osihmen, Oghenekaro Etebo and Paul Onuachu.
Nigeria finished its AFCON 2021 qualifying campaign unbeaten.
Osimhen opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, latching on to a pass over the defence by Kelechi Iheanacho to slot home past the Lesotho goalkeeper. He has scored five goals in the qualifiers this term.
Lesotho pulled one back minutes later but was ruled out for offside. Oghenekaro Etebo who returned to the starting lineup in place of the sick Joe Aribo scored the second goal in the 51st minute. He scored from a loose ball after a brilliant work from Victor Osimhen.
Substitute Paul Onuachu scored five minutes later to make it 3-0 and send the Crocodiles back home empty-handed.
MATCH PREVIEW
Although the Super Eagles of Nigeria have already secured a place in Cameroon, Gernot Rohr’s men are hoping to end its Group L AFCON qualification encounter with a cherry on top of the cake when they take on Lesotho on Tuesday evening, at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.
Rohr’s Super Eagles defeated Benin Republic 1-0in its last meeting, and would be aiming to finish the competition unbeaten. The three-time African champions are one of the eight teams still unbeaten in the AFCON qualifiers, the others being Cape Verde, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal and Burkina Faso.
The match between Nigeria and Lesotho is scheduled to kickoff at 1700 hours at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
Ahead of the last 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Lesotho today in Lagos, Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr has stated that he is going to stick with his established players and not ready to give ‘unknown’ players chance in the encounter.
With qualification already guaranteed for the Super Eagles, and Lesotho eliminated, many football followers have excepted the German coach to feature some other upcoming players.
However, Rohr stated that the match against Lesotho is a preparatory game ahead of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
“We play Liberia and then we go to Central Africa, (for World Cup qualifiers) already it is a preparation,” Super Eagles coach Rohr said.
“We don’t have so many games so I can’t give chance to play everybody. Some players are still missing, our wingers like (Simon) Moses, (Samuel) Kalu and perhaps (Alex) Iwobi again.”
“There is already space to see other solutions like we saw in Benin Republic. It is a short time to travel and recover,” Rohr added.
“We had only one training session but I think the team is ready and want to do very well to give a big pleasure to the fans of Lagos.”
Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr announced his starting lineup for his side’s final 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Lesotho.
How we line up vs #Lesotho
Kick Off: 5pm#SoarSuperEagles #Team9jaStrong pic.twitter.com/mFWfHxBokH—
