Nigeria 1-1 Corsica
Venue; Stade François Coty, Ajaccio
As part of preparation for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and 2019 World Cup qualifier, the Super Eagles will confront the tiny Island of Corsica in an international friendly match today (Friday @8pm Nigerian time) at the Stade François Coty, Ajaccio.
85′ Yellow card for Nigeria: Shehu Abdullahi goes into the ref’sbooks for a rough tackle.
82′ substitution for Nigeria: Agbo in, Agu out
80′ Goal! Penalty converted by Kelechi Iheanacho. Etebo was brought down in the box for the penalty. Nigeria 1-1 Corsica.
70′ Substitution for Corsica: Goal scorer Mandrichi out, Cropanese in. Lippini out, Vincent in.
68′ Substitution: Ebuehi out, Shehu Abdullahi in.
65′ Big save by Penneteau again. This time from Kelechi after good build up play from Olatunbosun and Etebo.
58′ Substitution for Nigeria Odey in, Alhassan out.
52′ Substitution for Corsica: Santelli out, Penneteau in
46′ Corsica gets the game back on
Half Time! Inspite of being 1-0 down, Nigeria has had the better chances and clearly dominated this game.
35′ Musa misses from close range after Alhassan’s effort was spilled by the Corsica goalkeeper
24′ Alhassan heads over the bar from close range after lovely delivery by Echiejile. The Eagles have been so dominant.
8′ Onyekuru misses a seater. Musa lays the pass on a plate but Onyekuru couldn’t finish with goalkeeper at his mercy.
5′ Goal! Corsica goes ahead courtesy a penalty kick after ball touches Ebuehi’s hands in the box.
Mandrichi the scorer. Nigeria 0-1 Corsica.
0′ The game gets underway, with a pass from Kelechi Iheanacho
This will be the first time that both teams will be meeting and it will afford Super Eagles Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr the opportunity to discover new players such as Nigeria Professional Football League (NPDL) top scorer, Stephen Odey, Sikiru Olatunbosun, Henry Onyekuru, Tyrone Ebuehi, Uche Agbo and Mikel Agu.
Although the team will be missing some key stars such as Mikel Obi, Wilfred Ndidi, Ogenyi Onazi, Carl Ikeme, Brown Ideye, Simon Moses, Leon Balogun, Alex Iwobi and a few to mention, however, the technical crew will count on Kelechi Iheanacho, Elderson Echiejile, Ahmed Musa, William Troost -Ekong and Ogehenekaro Etebo to help fire Nigeria to victory against Corsica.
Meanwhile, Rohr has revealed that the Corsica encounter will be a perfect match for the Super Eagles and he expect a good game.
”I have played against Corsica here before with other national teams. I expect good game and atmosphere.”
In the same vein, captain for today’s encounter Echiejile says the team won’t underestimate Corsica regardless of their FIFA rankings.
”We expect a physically competitive game to serve as preparation for our upcoming matches.”
“I know a bit about them, when I was here in France. Most of their players play in the Ligue One, so I expect a tough challenge from them. We cannot afford to, and will not underrate them,” Elderson said.