AFCON: Iheanacho’s goal reduces Egypt to nothing
Leicester City attacker, Kelechi Iheanacho’s 30th-minute goal was all Nigeria needed to take a commanding lead and destroyed the might of dreaded Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations at the Roumde Adjia Stadium in Cameroon on Tuesday.
Iheanacho also voted the man of the match because of the way he scored the only goal of the match.
Nigeria dominated the game throughout the first half. All thanks to Joe Aribo, Moses Simon, and Taiwo Awoniyi who kept the Egyptian defence at bay and went ahead to keep the clean slate after the keenly contested match.
Nigeria mounted more pressure on Egypt as Mo Salah was a shadow of himself as he was not allowed to click at all.
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Nigeria went into the competition with doubts surrounding the team due to a far from ideal preparation. But the poor preparation did not have an effect on the team as they outclassed the seven-time AFCON kings from start to finish.
Meanwhile, footy fans were left baffled after two broadcasters had Egypt down as playing an outrageous 5-5-0 formation for their African Cup of Nations opener.
All was fine with the pre-match coverage, that was until BeIN and Sky Sports showed the north African side’s formation.
Stunningly, the broadcasters showed Egpytian playing with two banks of five for their clash with the Super Eagles.
And Twitter went into meltdown after seeing the formation.
One fan tweeted: ‘Egypt playing a 5-5 formation?”
Another said: “Interesting Egypt formation.”
One remarked: “What the hell is that Egypt formation?”
Another chimed in: “Egypt formation Game Plan: kick to Salah up front, he will see what to do!”
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As the game kicked off, it soon became apparent that Egypt chief Carlos Quieroz had not adopted such an outrageous formation.
The former Manchester United No.2’s troops entered their clash with the Nigerians as one of the favourites to win the tournament.
And Quieroz relished the opportunity to play one of the strongest teams in the competition so early in their campaign.
The Portuguese said: “We want to face the strongest teams in the tournament.