Three goals in under half an hour, including a brace by Leicester of England’s Ahmed Musa steered the Super Eagles past the Hawks of Togo in an international friendly in Paris on Thursday.
Musa slotted past goalkeeper Fatao Alhassani as early as the third minute, after a marvelous job by English FA Cup champion Arsenal FC’s Alex Iwobi. Iwobi also provided the assist for the second goal by Musa 15 minutes later.
The Eagles dominated to near –embarrassing degree against the fellow West Africans, who featured at the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon earlier in the year.
On a day that NFF President Amaju Pinnick, 2nd Vice President Shehu Dikko and Aiteo Group chieftains Francis Peters and Andrew Onyearu had gingered the players and technical crew with assurances that money would no longer be a problem, following the 5-Year partnership agreement between the NFF and the foremost energy solutions company in April, the ever –businesslike Oghenekaro Etebo got the better of goalkeeper Alhassani in the 27th minute and laid for Kelechi Iheanacho to tap into the net for Nigeria’s third.
Victory means the three –time African champions remain unbeaten in all their eight matches over the past one year, winning six of those and scoring 15 goals while conceding only five.
The triumph also came on a day that Nigeria moved two steps up in the monthly FIFA ranking to 38th, and 4th in Africa. English Premiership club West Ham’s target Kelechi Iheanacho has now scored seven goals in 10 matches for the Super Eagles, including scoring in seven of the last eight matches.
SUPER EAGLES’ UNBEATEN STREAK
27 May 2016: Mali 0 Nigeria 1 – Rouen (Friendly) – Kelechi Iheanacho
31 May 2016: Luxembourg 1 Nigeria 3 – Luxembourg (Friendly) – Brown Ideye, Odion Ighalo, Kelechi Iheanacho
3 Sep 2016: Nigeria 1 Tanzania 0 – Uyo (Afcon qualifier) – Kelechi Iheanacho
9 Oct 2016: Zambia 1 Nigeria 2 – Ndola (World Cup qualifier – Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho
12 Nov 2016: Nigeria 3 Algeria 1 – Uyo (World Cup qualifier) – Victor Moses (2), Mikel Obi
23 Mar 2017: Senegal 1 Nigeria 1 – London (Friendly) – Kelechi Iheanacho
26 May 2017: Corsica 1 Nigeria 1 – Ajaccio (Friendly) – Kelechi Iheanacho
1 June 2017: Nigeria 3 Togo 0 – Paris (Friendly) – Ahmed Musa (2), Kelechi Iheanacho
