The Nigeria Super Eagles began the ongoing Africa Nations Cup Tournament holding in Cameroon on a bright note, beating the Pharaohs of Egypt by a lone goal in the Group D opener.
The coach Austin Eguavoen led the National team indeed proved skeptics wrong from the kick-off of the whistle, taking possession with confidence against all expectations.
Moses Simon like in the biblical days was a thorn in the flesh of the Egyptians as he tormented the pharaohs with his dribbling skills.
The Eagles hard work paid off 30 minutes into the game when Moses Simon from the left flank connected Joe Aribo who stepped it down in the middle for Kelechi Iheanacho who chested it down and struck with his left foot
into the left corner of the net to render Goalkeeper El Shenawy helpless.
The Egyptians made several substitutions in their attempts to change the tempo of the game but the atmosphere in Garoua remained the same as Moses Simon continued tormenting them
The Eagles defense made up of Troost Ekong, Kenneth Omeruo, zaidu Sanusi and Ola Aina earned the respect of spectators as they were up to their responsibility to cage Egypt attack strongman Mohamed Salah.
The 30 minutes goal which earned Iheanacho the man of the match award was enough for Nigeria to seal a 1-0 victory as both sides could not get any goal in the second half.
It should be recalled that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) few weeks to the Cameroon 2021 AFCON sacked the Super Eagles coach Genot Rohr which gave coach Austin Eguavoen the huge task of leading the three-time AFCON winners to the tournament.
The Super Eagles were also faced with the challenges of getting some of their key players including goal poacher Victor Osimhe and last AFCON tournament highest goal scorer Odion Ighalo from their foreign clubs.
