HE was drafted into the team from the national Under-20 side and yesterday in Lusaka, Taiwo Awoniyi justified that decision with the two goals that fetched Nigeria a Congo 2015 All Africa Games ticket.
Nigeria was at the risk of missing from the men’s football event of the All Africa Games for a second consecutive time, having failed to qualify for the last edition in Mozambique. The team played a goalless draw with the Zambians in Abuja and needed a good result to advance to Congo 2015. Up stepped Awoniyi, who played a prominent role in the country’s victory at the African Under-20 Championship in Senegal last month.
The game monitored by The Guardian started on a furious note, with the hosts apparently wanting to score an early goal to douse their supporters’ anxiety.
With Mukuka Mulenga and Shadreck Malambo shooting each time they neared the Nigerian box, goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel had to be at his best to keep the Young Chipolopolos at bay.
Nigeria had a big scare when the Zambians hit the bar in the 23rd minute through Ronald Kampamba’s shot, which beat Daniel. But that rather than dampen the fighting spirit in Samson Siasia’s boys, worked as the push the team needed to take the fight to their hosts.
The resurgent Nigerians, with Kingsley Sokari and Azubuike Okechukwu pulling the strings from the midfield, carved up the Zambian defence in the 34th minute, allowing the fleet-footed Awoniyi to silence the home supporters with a clinical finish. Nigeria led with that lone goal until the end of the first half.
On resumption, Zambia looked a different team as they sought the equaliser, but the Nigerians kept them at bay.
The introduction of Flying Eagles’ left-back, Mustapha Abdullahi, to replace his national Under-20 team mate in the second half further tightened Nigeria’s grip on the game. This forced the Zambians to rely on speculative long range shots in their search for goals.
They kept the pressure on Nigeria and in the 76th minute, Samu latched on to Malambo’s pass to net the equaliser. Had the scores ended at 1-1, Nigeria would still have beaten the Zambians to the ticket, a situation which the hosts didn’t want, hence they threw everything at Siasia’s boys. Their efforts nearly paid off in the 80th minute when Kampamba had goalkeeper Daniel to beat, but the alert Nigerian shot stopper gathered his attempted chip.
The Zambians were still scrambling for the winner when Awoniyi popped up again to dampen their enthusiasm four minutes to regulation time.
With the win, the men’s team will now join their women counterpart on the train to Congo. The women team, which also missed the last edition, qualified this term with a 9-1 aggregate defeat of Mali.
