Eagles get off to flying start in Championship of African Nations beating Niger 4-1

NIGERIA'S home-based Eagles have got off to a flying start on the ongoing Championship of African Nations (Chan) with a convincing 4-1 victory over Niger Republic thanks to a scintillating second half performance.

 

At the tournament taking place in Rwanda, which is only open to players plying their trade within the African continent, in this the Eagles opening match, the first half ended goalless. However, a blistering second half saw the Eagles find the back of the net four times, with Abia Warriors striker, Chisom Chikatara bagging a hat-trick.

 

With this victory, the team now goes to the top of Group C after the opening game between tournament favourites Tunisia and Guinea ended 2-2. On Friday the Eagles take on Tunisia and if they win that match, they are automatically guaranteed a place in the knock-out phase of the tournament.

 

Yesterday Osas Okoro opened the scoring in the 46th minute before a Chisom Chikatara hat-trick sealed the win for the Eagles. This was after the team failed to find their feet in the first half with Prince Aggrey having the Eagles first chance less than one minute into the game but his low shot was gathered by Alzouma Inoussa in goal for Niger.

In the seventh minute, the Nigeriens had their own chance with Idrissa Garba trying to lob the ball over Ikechukwu Ezenwa in goal for Nigeria but his effort was stopped. After that, the Eagles went close again after a nice build-up but Okoro shot wide from the edge of the 18-yard box.

 

However, Okoro made up for it, eventually opening the scoring inside 30 seconds of the restart off an assist from Tunde Adeniji. After the curtain raiser, the Eagles made their second change following the introduction of Chisom Chikatara for Adeniji on 58 minutes.

 

Chikatara doubled the Eagles lead on 74 minutes after taking the ball on his chest before unleashing a right-foot shot which flew pass Niger's goalkeeper. Niger Republic's Adebayor halved the deficit on 80 minutes after he let fly a left-foot strike, bringing the score to 4-1.

 

However, Chikatara restored the Eagles two-goal lead in the 82nd minute, after which he had three good chances to have extended the lead but squandered them all. He later made up for his misses by slotting home the fourth goal in the 93rd minute.