FIFA 2022 WCQ: Nigeria beat Cape Verde 2-1

Nigeria’s Super Eagles, Tuesday night, defeated the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde by 2-1  in the second match of Group C of the 2022 World Cup Qualifier (WCQ) for Africa, Oracle Today can confirm.

The match played on the island of Cape Verde, off the West African coast, concludes the first round of matches for the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

Cape Verde opened the scoring in the 19^th minute through Tavares who found himself in an advanced position to fire to the near post beating the goalkeeper Maduka Okoye for the first goal.

Victor Osimhen equalized few minutes later in the 29^th minute when his initial cross into the six-yard box was blocked by the goalkeeper, but on the rebound the ball ends up in the back of the net to make it 1-1.

With 15 minutes left into the match, Cape Verde defender, Santos returned a ball to his goalkeeper which ended up at the back of the net for an own goal to make it 1-2.

Nigeria’s victory means they remain atop of Group C with the maximum 6 points.

Liberia had earlier on Monday beaten Central African Republic (CAR) by a lone goal to follow in second position after two matches.

Cape Verde and CAR are in third and fourth places, respectively, with one point each, having ended their clash last week 1-1.

Earlier, Cape Verde’s technical director, Bubista, pointed out that if they maintain the frequency of arrival as they did in the previous match the chances of taking the victory against Nigeria will be high this Tuesday:

“Obviously we want to be as strong as possible to look for the three points. As we created chances against Central African Republic, we are confident that we will also be able to create them against Nigeria,” said the tactician.

In the next round of matches which will commence on October 6, this year, Cape Verde will visit Liberia, while Nigeria will host Central African Republic, same day.

Nigeria fielded a starting line-up which included: 1 Okoye, 3 Collins, 12 Shehu, 22 Omeruo, 20 Awaziem, 13 Bonke, 14 Michael, 8 Ejike, 15 Simon, 7 Musa, 9 Osimhen.

Meanwhile, after the match, Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa bagged N10 million for becoming the third Nigeria international to clock 100 caps for the country’s national team.

The milestone 100 appearances for Super Eagels has only been attained by two now retired ex-internationals; defender Joseph Yobo and goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, who were both captains.

Musa, the 28-year-old won his 100th cap for the Super Eagles during their 2-1 win over Cape Verde in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick had before the match promised that the captain will be rewarded with N10million.

Pinnick stated that the football house will reward Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa with N10million for reaching 100 caps.

At the age of 17, Musa made his senior team debut on August 5, 2010, in a qualification match for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations against Madagascar after he came on as a substitute for Mikel Obi in the 2-0 win.

He scored his first goal for the Super Eagles in a March 2011 friendly against Kenya and following his appearance against Cape Verde, Tuesday, Musa attained that feat of 100 caps for Super Eagles.

“The NFF will give Ahmed Musa N10 million for reaching the 100 caps. We will sustain this gesture and honor our players that hit 100 games henceforth,” Pinnick said.

Ahmed Musa has so far scored a total of 15 goals for the Super Eagles and remains Nigeria’s highest goal scorer at the FIFA World Cup tournament with 4 goals.