Sierra Leone 2-3 Nigeria: Osimhen and Iheanacho seal Afcon ticket for Super Eagles

By Wale Mustapha

Nigeria has qualified for the 2023 African Cup of Nations, (AFCON) in Ivory Coast following a hard fought 3-2 win over Sierra Leone in Monrovia, Liberia on Sunday.

The encounter was the Matchday Five of Group A in the qualifying playoffs which has also seen the Super Eagles returned to summit over Guinea Bissau with a match to spare.

Nigeria had the first real attempt at goal in the 13th minute when Moses Simon beat two of his markers before delivering for Osimhen whose header was parried wide by Ibrahim Sesay.

Samuel Chukwueze volleyed over from another effort after Osimhen headed down to his path.

The Napoli striker would soon scored the opening goal for Nigeria in the 19th minutes with a brilliant volley over Sesay after connecting with Kenneth Omeruo’s long pass.

Nigeria went close to make it two in the 26th minutes but Chukwueze had his chance blocked to corner by Sesay again.

Osimhen doubled the lead for Nigeria with two minutes after the half hour as he latched onto loose ball and buried it past Sierra Leone keeper to get his 17 goals in 25 appearances for Nigeria.

Mustapha Bundu could have halved the deficit for the Leone Stars but had his chance turned to corner by Omeruo.

Osimhen fed Simon with a through pass to increase the tally for Super Eagles, he would have his low shot denied by busy Sesay in goal for the hosts.

Sierra Leone got a lifeline to fight back with five minutes to end the first half when Emmanuel Sammadia located Mustapha Bundu who outs muscled his way to the box before firing over debutant keeper, Adebayo Adeleye.

The last effort of the opening half fell to Wilfred Ndidi to restore the two goal cushion for Nigeria but skied it over the crossbar.

Adeleye made a timely intervention at the restart to thwart a goal scoring effort for Sierra Leone.

The hosts enjoyed spells of dominance till the hour mark of the match but lacked the cutting edge to score.

The three times AFCON winners held on till the last six minutes of the game when Sierra Leone find the equalizer through low drive by Augustus Kargbo.

Captain of the hosts, Steven Caulker was close to complete the turn around for the Leone Stars but Adeleye was at the end to pick his header from a free kick.

Taiwo Awoniyi who came in for Osimhen curled wide a from edge of the box after combining well with Simon.

Just as the game was heading for a stalemate, substitute Kelechi Iheanacho broke the heart of Leone Stars with the late goal after tucking in from a brilliant Zaidu Sanusi’s brilliant pass that rendered Sierra Leone defense helpless.

The victory saw the Super Eagles return to summit of Group A table just as they secured the ticket to the 2024 AFCON in Ivory Coast.