CHAN 16: Nigeria's defence must improve vs. Guinea

goal.com

The Super Eagles can be thankful for Tunisia's wastefulness in their second group game, but came through the suffering with an important result ahead of their group decider.

For much of Friday’s slog with Tunisia, the Super Eagles were decidedly second best. With that in mind, perhaps that makes the 1-1 scoreline an acceptable one; it means Nigeria progress if they avoid defeat against Guinea in the group’s final game.

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Still, there lingers a sense of sour dissatisfaction—if the result was palatable in the larger context, it was not within the structure of the game: having taken the lead against the run of play, Nigeria failed to push on, and were deservedly pegged back.

Sunday Oliseh’s side, now habitually early second-half birds, latched on to a worm of a hospital ball across the front of the Tunisian penalty box to edge ahead. Osas Okoro’s pass found Chisom Chikatara between the centre-backs, and the tournament’s top scorer added to his tally.

The coach’s decision to start the hat-trick hero from the previous game here proved justified, as Tunisia retained possession with admirable efficiency in midfield. Chikatara, neither the biggest nor the strongest, varied his movement well enough to keep from becoming isolated upfront, and helped the team up the pitch with his dribbling ability.

Having gone behind, Tunisia showed restraint in their pursuit of an equaliser, wary of leaving the oodles of space within which the ‘Kolanut boy’ cavorted gaily against Niger. Having had a perfectly good goal inexplicably ruled out in the first period, perhaps it was easier to trust in the newfound vulnerability of the Nigeria defence.

There was however a noticeable shift in attacking modes after the restart. While in the first period, Ahmed Akaichi had caused Stephen Eze and Austin Oboroakpo problems in the channels, the withdrawal of the giant Eze led to a more wing-oriented attack.

This sudden drop in average height of the Nigerian defence proved the marginal difference: Akaichi pounced on a knockdown from a cross to swivel and finish for the equaliser, and could well have won it later on with goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa flapping at and completely missing another cross. The finish, with the goal gaping, was tame and chested off the line.

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Needing a more direct option to carry the ball forward, Oliseh could have done with Enyimba’s Ezekiel Bassey much earlier in the game. There seems an odd contrast between the swift decisiveness of the coach’s decision-making in the defensive and attacking thirds: he was brisk in culling Jamiu Alimi, but curiously reticent about the invisible Bartholomew Ibenegbu against Niger. Here again, he was quick to withdraw Eze, who it turns out was carrying a knock, but left the disappointing Prince Aggreh on for far too long.

Despite his tendency to twist in defence, Oliseh will surely be hoping that his centre-back pairing-whoever they may be-can remain consistent for the rest of the campaign.

One might posit that, having been a midfield anchor in his playing days, there is less tolerance for defensive incontinence. In that case, he can be especially displeased: the fragility in the backline was worrying, partly because it is not something one might have associated with this team before the tournament. They are as yet without a clean sheet in Rwanda.