By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Irate fans on Tuesday night reacted angrily after the Super Eagles failed to pick the ticket for the 2022 FIFA World Cup final by invading the football pitch and destroying everything on sight including the pitch panels and reserve benches at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
Super Eagles forced Ghana’s Black Stars to a 1-1 draw in the return leg final round of the Africa qualifiers match and the result was not enough for Nigeria to book the FIFA World Cup final billed for Qatar later this year.
Both Super Eagles and Ghana had earlier played out a barren draw during the first leg of the final round tie played at Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi hence millions of Nigerians expected an outright victory in Abuja on Tuesday.
But It was not to be after Ghana’s stand-in captain Thomas Teye Partey scored via a 20 meter long range shot which beat Francis Uzoho in the 10th minute to silence the 60,000 capacity stadium.
However, the early goal spurred the Super Eagles to throw caution to the winds as they attacked the Black Stars consistently and were rewarded with a penalty after the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) confirmed that a Ghanaian handled the ball in the box.
Captain William Troost-Ekong stepped out in the 22th minute to send Ghana’s goalkeeper Jared Wallocot the wrong way. All efforts for the host to score another goal did not material until end of first half.
On resumption, Super Eagles Interim Head Coach Augustine Eguavoen made all the five approved changes to win the match and a likely breakthrough came when Victor Osimhen outwitted three Black Stars defenders to score Nigeria’s second goal on the night.
The goal was overruled for an off-side after VAR called the attention of the Tunisian Center Referee, Zadok Slemi for a review.
The Super Eagles never lifted their game until the end of the match and the gritty Ghanaians managed to grind out an away draw which was good enough to earn them the World Cup ticket at the expense of the Nigerians.
Meanwhile, some Nigerian fans who thronged the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja on Tuesday to cheer the Super Eagles could not stomach the disappointment the team gifted them as they invaded the pitch to destroy advertising boards and overturn the technical benches used for the match.
Prompt News reports that many irate fans also removed corner flags, broke chairs and destroy anything they can lay their hands on the pitch.
Security operatives moved in quickly to quell the stadium skirmishes as the fans were chased away from the mainbowl of the stadium.
There was no causality recorded as at the time of filing this report.
