Watch How Nigeria Lost At Home To Guinea Bissau -

In the first leg of AFCON Qualifying, Nigeria fell 1-0 to Guinea Bissau on March 24 at the Abuja National Stadium. In this match, the Super Eagles were rated higher than Guinea Bissau because they were playing at home, had some top players on display, and so on.

In fact, Nigeria’s standout player was Bright Osayi-Samuel in their shocking loss to Guinea-Bissau on match day three of their qualifying doubleheader for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

After 29 minutes, Mamadu Balde’s cool finish under Francis Uzoho legs was the game-winning goal for Nigeria, which played largely flat and uncoordinated at home in the Abuja National Stadium.

Four consecutive games have been lost by the Super Eagles. Not only did the Super Eagles lose their 100% record in AFCON qualifying, but they also lost control of Group A leadership to the rivals.

In their record 10-0 victory over underdog Sao Tome e Principe on Match Day 2 of the qualifiers, Nigeria’s Coach Jose Peseiro has a unflattering record of two wins from seven games with just one clean sheet.

There are rumors that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will not extend Peseiro’s one-year, $70,000-per-month contract when it expires in June of this year because it wants to continue cutting costs.

However, when the topic was brought up during the press conference that followed the game, the Portuguese was quick to dismiss any rumors regarding his position on the team.

“Why sack? We are still in the position for qualification,” he said.

“In the first half we create many opportunities but we could not score. It is only one match, we could have been here for another one hour and not score. Sometimes it happens in football. I am not happy, of course. But I believe in this team. They did the maximum but Guinea [Bissau] were very lucky and we had bad luck.”

Genuinely, the Portuguese may be right given his team dominated possession and had more opportunities on goal. However, their opposition was more intense and appeared more perilous.

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With confidence, Guinea Bissau made use of their one chance and forced their way in between the two center backs to steal a hoofed free kick and pass the ball under goalkeeper Uzoho.

Nigeria’s troubling pattern was carried on by the goal. They have yielded first in the entirety of their home games except the fixture against Sao Tome e Principe.

Interestingly, since his hire last year, Coach Peseiro has only received three months’ worth of salary. And perhaps, some things prevented Nigeria from winning at home.

One issue was lack of enough training, and for two days, the MKO Abiola Stadium’s power supply failed, putting the team’s training schedule ahead of the game in jeopardy.

There was only one noteworthy performance from the players: Fenerbahce defender Osaka-Samuel defended with poise and provided an attacking outlet repeatedly.

With Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi in the midfield, Peseiro’s decision to frontload his team with attacking players clearly backfired.

Samuel Chukwueze and Ndidi both struggled to find their rhythms, as always. Additionally, goal poacher Victor Osimhen was left alone and was double-teamed.

In a similar breakaway fashion, Nigeria last lost to Cape Verde at home in Nations Cup qualifying. This team will need to match Rohr’s Super Eagles’ effort on the return leg, which they did and won 2-0.