The Nigeria’s Super Eagles won their second Group A match against Cote d’Ivoire with a lone goal in the ongoing 2024 AFCON.
The tense battle between the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations hosts Ivory Coast and Nigeria went the way of the Super Eagles in the 54th minute after Victor Osimhen was brought down in the Ivorian defence box.
Defender William Troost-Ekong converted the spot kick to earn the Eagles three points. This enabled Nigeria to then keep Ivory Coast at bay and leapfrog them in the table into second.
Nigeria moves to four points after two games in Group A with Ivory Coast remaining on three.
After drawing their opening game against Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria was good value for this narrow victory, although it only came after a debatable second-half penalty when Ousmane Diomande was deemed to have clipped Victor Osimhen.
Equatorial Guinea remain top and face Ivory Coast on Monday, at the same time Nigeria will fancy their chances against Guinea-Bissau.
With third perhaps enough to qualify for the knockouts, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast and Nigeria can all still progress – but defeat on Thursday certainly ramps up the pressure on the hosts heading into those final round of Group A fixtures.
Osimhen may have got the goal in their previous match and earned the penalty that ultimately won them the game on Thursday, but Nigeria need more from their star striker, who in turn needs greater service if they are to go the distance at this tournament.
The Napoli forward missed a glorious opportunity in the first half when he really should have done better – and that summed up a frustrating evening for him personally.
All strikers miss chances, of course, and it didn’t cost them today, but unless he improves his finishing you fear it could cost Nigeria in the bigger moments. That said, he has the quality to make amends and really prove to the continent and the world why he is the reigning African Football of the Year.
The match was watched by 49,517 fans, a far higher crowd than that for the hosts’ opening game when the number of empty seats at the 60,000-capacity venue was a source of controversy.
Despite the favourable atmosphere, the Elephants are the first host nation to lose a match in the group phase of an AFCON since 2012, when Equatorial Guinea -– co-hosts that year with Gabon –- went down 1-0 to Zambia.
The last host nation to go out in the first round was Gabon, eliminated with three draws in 2017.
Ivory Coast were still missing star forward Sebastien Haller as he recovers from injury, as coach Jean-Louis Gasset made two changes to his line-up with Serge Aurier coming in at right-back and Christian Kouame on the right wing.
Nigeria were without injured Alhassan Yusuf in midfield and started with a three-man central defence as Fulham’s Calvin Bassey came in.
