Jose Peseiro claimed his first competitve win as Nigeria coach as his men came from behind to see off Sierra Leone 2-1 in Thursday’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Moshood Abiola Stadium.
Strikes from Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen inspired the team's comeback triumph despite the visitors' early stunning opener as they kicked start their qualification campaign for Cote d'Ivoire 2023 on a winning note.
In Abuja, the Leone Stars made the brightest of start when Mohamed Turay's powerful strike was brilliantly parried over the bar by goalkeeper Francis Uzoho in the fourth minute of the encounter.
Moments later, the Super Eagles came close when Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey combined well but Victor Osimhen’s header went inches wide before the latter almost found a breakthrough off a pass from Sadiq Umar.
In the 11th minute, the visitors broke the deadlock when Jonathan Morsay scored a stunning goal with a diving header from a pin-point cross from Alhassan Koroma.
Nigeria, however, fought back to level matters when Alex Iwobi and Moses Simon combined superbly for the former to fire past goalkeeper Mohamed Kamara five minutes later.
Three minutes later, Kamara pulled off another stunning save when he denied Moses Simon's header, before forward Musa Kamara came close with a fine effort among the several attempts by the visitors in the 35th minute.
Four minutes from the half time break, the hosts finally completed their comeback when Osimhen fired into the back of the net on recieving a perfect header from Simon off Ola Aina’s cross from the right.
After the restart, the three-time African champions came close to increase the tally through Iwobi, Osimhen, Aribo, substitute Ademola Lookman and Samuel Chukwueze but the trio could not find the back of the net.
📹 𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒: 🇳🇬 2-1 🇸🇱
The Super Eagles score twice in the first half to earn their first 3 points in their #TotalEnergiesAFCONQ2023 campaign 🦅@NGSuperEagles | @SLFA_sl pic.twitter.com/MmHgIYOUS0
— CAF (@CAF_Online) June 9, 2022
With the victory, the Eagles secured three points and go top of Group A, ahead of their trop to Agadir, Morocco for their MatchDay 2 encounter against the ‘The Falcons and True Parrots’of São Tomé and Príncipe on Monday.
