BY JOE APU
The Super Eagles of Nigeria last night consolidated on their march to redemption, as they humbled Luxembourg on their soil winning 3-1 in the team’s second international friendly in five days.
A goal in the first half left the Eagles led by Ogenyi Onazi taking charge of the situation. According to reports monitored on livescore.com, Nigeria’s first goal came through Brown Ideye’s effort in the 36th minute.
The build up to the goal started with Umar Aminu who got past two defenders before he passed to skipper Ogenyi Onazi, whose ferocious effort was partly saved by the goalkeeper and from the rebound Ideye tucked away.
The goal was Ideye’s first goal in three years. The Eagles positional play was good and Aminu, Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi both had chances early on to put Nigeria on the scoreboard.
Nigeria dominated the proceedings as expected with Luxembourg hardly troubling their goal but in the second half, the Eagles stepped up the pressure on their host with Kelechi Iheanacho scoring the second goal of the night in the 69th minute.
However, the host in a spirited effort got a goal back through Vincent Thill in the closing seconds of the match, but while they were still celebrating their goal, Watford’s Nigerian striker, Odion Ighalo made it three for Nigeria to ensure coach Salisu Yusuf finished the two friendly international matches with victories.
The Super Eagles earlier in the game against Mali won 1-0 through a goal from Kelechi Iheanacho.
Luxembourg, coached by Luc Holtz, who before the game relied on the fast breaks of winger Daniel Alves da Mota and the potency of Stefano Bensi in attack was disappointed that his players failed to click against the Eagles of Nigeria.
The Red Lions had won only two of their last 10 matches, beating Macedonia 1-0 in a Euro 2016 qualifier in September 2015 and Greece by the same margin in a friendly two months later. Their last match, a friendly against Albania in March this year, ended in a 2-0 defeat for the Lions.