Super Eagles of Nigeria Gasps for a Win over Leone Stars of Sierra Leon in Monrovia.
…Liberian President, George Weah to watch Victor Osimhen Live.

The 22,000 capacity Samuel Kanyon Doe Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia is expected to exceed its capacity above the highest ever experienced 60,000 attendance during the Liberia versus Malawi encounter of 11th June 1989 as the Super Eagles of Nigeria trade tackles with the Leon Stars of Sierra Leone on Sunday 18th June 2023 at 1700 hours in an AFCON qualifier.

Already Liberian President and only African Player to win football most prestigious award of Ballon D’or, George Weah has indicated attendance to shake hands with the grade A football stars that Nigeria is going to parade. He yearns to watch the superlative Victor Osimhen in Monrovia live.

President Weah believes so much in Nigeria and was one of the principal guests at the inauguration of the new Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu at Abuja on 29th of May 2023.

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Much is expected of the Group A match between hosts Sierra Leone and Nigeria as the West African country was adjudged by CAF officials not to have a standard turf befitting the status of such CAF match so after going front and back, Monrovia was picked.

The two teams landed Monrovia Friday and the Nigerian Coach, Jose Paseiro already acknowledged the match will be tough saying, “We therefore have to be at our best organization and commitment and play a collective game against them”. The Leone Stars Coach, John Keister is talking like Nigerian coaches used to speak anytime they have to face Brazil in years of Old, “we will try our best against Nigeria, we will give them a tough match”.

Nigeria slammed the Leone Stars in the first encounter on 9th June 2022 with a 2-1 drubbing when Guinea Bissau same day walloped Sao Tome and Principe 6-1. On the 2nd Day fixtures played 13th June last year Sierra Leone played 2-2 draw with Guinea Bissau while Nigeria took Sao Tome to football classroom with a 10-0 drubbing on their land.

On the 3rd Day fixtures played 22nd March last year, Sierra Leone again played 2-2 with Sao Tome even while hosting and Nigeria lost at home on 24th March to Guinea Bissau 0-1. On the 4th Day of Matches played 26th March last year the Leone Stars beat Sao Tome 2-0 on away encounter while Nigeria went to Guinea Bissau and took sweet revenge with a one nil victory on 27th March just the way the Guineans slapped them in their previous encounter.

Now is Match Day 5 and on the 14th June 2023 Guinea Bissau went to Sao Tome and grabbed a 1-0 victory to dethrone the Super Eagles on the Group table living Nigeria in a limbo for a must win encounter in Monrovia on Sunday.

Although there is an outstanding match for Day 6 in the group, to be played on 8th September 2023 when Guinea Bissau will host Sierra Leone and Nigeria will host Sao Tome this Day 5 matches are important because if Nigeria wins, the outstanding match will be a formality in the group reckoning.

As at Friday 16th June(today) Guinea Bissau tops group A with10 points from 3 wins, a draw and a loss; Nigeria is 2nd with 9 points from 3 wins and a loss; Sierra Leone is 3rd with 5 points with a win, two draws and a loss while Sao Tome sits at the bottom with a point from a draw. That is why Sierra Leone is looking forward to a miracle victory over Nigeria to keep qualification hope alive.

Nigeria relies on her top foreign players to clinch qualification in Monrovia but regular Goalkeeper, Francis Uzoho is on suspension so three new goalkeepers were invited namely Adebayo Adeleye of Hapoel Jerusalem; Victor Sochima of Rivers United and Olorunleke Ojo of Nigeria’s local league Champions, Eyimba of Aba. I understand that Chief Coach Paseiro has told Baruwa the Nigerian Goalkeeper Trainer that Adeleye will be in goal because he has the experience of playing against a hostile crowd many times before.

Nigeria and Sierra Leone has met six times before with Nigeria dominating with four wins and two draws. On 11th October 2008 Nigeria de-shined the Stars 4-0; beat them in an International Friendly on 9th February 2-1; smashed the Stars 2-0 in a WAFU encounter on 11th September 2017; played goalless in an AFCON match of 17th November 2020; after the 13th November 2020 duel in Nigeria that ended 4-4 when Nigeria was leading 4-3 and the last meeting of 9th June 2022 also an AFCON match that Nigeria won 2-1.

Sierra Leone has appeared in only three AFCON finals of 1994, 1996 and 2021 losing all appearances at group stages. Whereas Nigeria is three times champions of the African title in 1980 at the National Stadium under Christian Chukwu as Captain, 1994 in Tunisia and 2013. Nigeria also won the CHAN Cup called Cup of Nations meant for only local players two times. Nigeria is a star of African football.

Already eight countries are known to have already qualified for the AFCON finals scheduled for Ivory Coast in January namely Ivory Coast; Morocco; Algeria; Burkina Faso; Senegal; South Africa; Tunisia and Egypt. A total 24 teams are lined up to contest in Ivory Coast.

At the last edition played in Cameroun, Senegal lifted the trophy with Egypt as Runners-up; hosts Cameroun won the Bronze and Burkina Faso placed 4th.

A total 100 goals was scored in Cameroun with the Indomitable Lions Captain, Vincent Aboubakar winning the Golden Boot with 8 goals; Senegalese Captain, Sadio Mane was Best Player; Best Young player was Issa Kabore of Burkina Faso; Golden Gloves for Best Goal Keeper went to Edoard Mendy of Senegal and Senegal also carted home the Fair Play award.

NB: The Author, Eniola Olatunji (Formerly Yomi Kassim) has been in the media for some 46 years with vast experience in Radio Sports Commentaries and Newspaper reporting. He worked as Presenter/Producer on many radio stations and Reporter/Editor in some Newspapers,