2023 AFCON Qualifier: 4 Reasons Nigeria Lost at Home to Guinea Bissau

• Nigeria vs Guinea-Bissau ended 1-0 in favour of the visitors who claimed precious three points away from home
• Coach Jose Peseiro watched haplessly as his side lost yet again - the fourth consecutive time
• From bad pitch to poor goalkeeping, everything practically went wrong for the Nigerian side

Guinea-Bissau pulled off a stunt to defeat the Super Eagles of Nigeria at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.

It was a fight to finish on Friday night as the visitors fought hard to claim a well-deserved victory away from home.

Victory for over Nigeria takes Guinea-Bissau top of the qualifiers in Group A with 7 points, while Nigeria trail with six.

Here we look at 4 reasons Nigeria lost at home to Guinea-Bissau:

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Football

1. Poor goalkeeping:

Nigeria failed to learn from their failure to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup following an error from goalkeeper Francis Uzoho during their final qualifying first-leg game against Ghana.

Thomas Partey whipped a tame ball only for the goalkeeper to fluff it into his own net, which cost Nigeria the World Cup ticket.

It also came to play as Guinea-Bissau understood that Nigeria still have a problem in that department and Mama Samba Balde took advantage when he slotted in-between Uzoho’s legs to give his side a shocking win over Nigeria.

2. Bad Pitch:

For the umpteenth time, players have complained that the pitch at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja is bad.

During the post-match conference, Guinea-Bissau head coach Baciro Cande told journalists that it was ‘complicated’ to play on the pitch.

The same question was thrown to Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi. The Everton of England midfielder smiled for some seconds before saying “no comments”.

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Football

3. Lack of cohesion:

No doubt, the Super Eagles paraded a galaxy of stars – but they failed to shine at home once again. The team lacked cohesion as they only had three days to train before the crucial encounter.

In fact on Tuesday night, the team had to train in the dark after power failed to come on at the stadium.

Although they had more possession of the ball, Nigeria failed to string passes upfront and lacked that bite in the attack as they did not really trouble the opposition goalkeeper.

4. Invitation of unfit players:

Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro had a number of players who were not playing games for their club in the 23-man invited players.

While the likes of Victor Osimhen, Alex Iwobi, and Ademola Lookman are playing week-in and week-out, a number of players were just there for ‘decoration’.

Nigerians react

Sports Brief earlier reported that Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and Samuel Chukwueze have landed themselves in the hot waters of football fans who were not impressed with their performance for Nigeria.

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Football

Mama Balde who plays as a winger and right-back for Ligue 1 club Troyes scored the only goal that condemned the Super Eagles to a defeat.

Nigerian coach Folabi Ojekunle expressed anger over the defeat of the Super Eagles in Abuja.