Eagles beat Luxembourg 3-1

Interim coach Salisu Yusuf led the Super Eagles
to their second win in as many games as they
defeated Luxembourg 3-1 on Tuesday at the
Stade Josy Barthel in a friendly match.

Three goals from Brown Ideye, Kelechi
Iheanacho and Odion Ighalo took the shine off
the lone strike from Thill Vincent for the
Luxembourgers.

The match was the second in five days for the
Eagles after they defeated Mali 1-0 in France
before heading to Luxembourg on Sunday.

Nigeria are preparing for the 2016 World Cup
qualifiers after failing to qualify for the 2018
Africa Cup of Nations.

Yusuf made six changes to the team which
started against Mali bringing on goalkeeper
Daniel Akpeyi in place of Carl Ikeme. Leon
Balogun gave way for Kenneth Omeruo while
Elderson Echiejile was preferred at left-back.

Brown Ideye and Umar Aminu also started while
Kelechi Iheanacho, who scored the winner
against Mali, also started ahead of Ighalo.

Nigeria got the first chance of the game in the
second minute but Ideye’s shot went wide. The
Eagles dominated play and deservedly went
ahead of the Luxembourgers through Ideye in
the 36th minute. Aminu went past two
defenders before he set up stand-in captain,
Ogenyi Onazi, whose shot from outside the
penalty area was parried by the hosts keeper
but a lurking Ideye tucked in the rebound for his
first goal for the national team in three years.

The Eagles continued their dominance of the
game and kept their opponents at bay with good
positional play. Aminu, Iheanacho and Arsenal
forward, Alex Iwobi, all had chances in the first
half but could not increase the tally for Nigeria.

Luxembourg came out attacking in the second
half but still hardly troubled the Eagles defence.
In the 55th minute, Yusuf brought on Babatunde
Michael for Iwobi and Simon Moses for Aminu
while Wilfred Ndidi came on for Abdullahi
Shehu and Raheem Lawal for Onazi in the 64th
minute.

The substitutions paid off as Iheanacho
extended the Eagles’ lead in the 69th minute.
Luxembourg striker Thill reduced the tally in
the 90th minute after Omeruo slipped but
substitute Ighalo restored the two-goal lead
when he grabbed the Eagles third in added time.