The senior national team of Nigeria under instructions from coach of the team Jose Peseiro had what can be described as their first real training session ahead of Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers game against Sao Tome and Principe, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
All 23 players invited for the dead rubber tie in Uyo took part in the almost two hours session, which started at around 4:30pm Nigerian team with the visitors training earlier.
It started with the traditional warm up drills with the goalkeepers having their own session separately with the trainer Abideen Baruwa. The players were later involved in a drill that was centered around building from the back.
That was soon followed with a shooting exercise, where the players were left face to face with the shot stoppers, who were took turns to face the players on the instructions of the coach.
Olorunleke Ojo was the first to go between the sticks and tried as he could, he failed to stop any effort from notably Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi, Gift Orban, Ademola Lookman, Moses Simon, Kelechi Iheanacho and Victor Boniface.
Ojo was replaced by Francis Uzoho, who also failed to stop the sharp shooting forwards from finding the back of the net. Adebayo Adeleye also suffered the same fate when he took his chance in goal.
During the drills, Bayer Leverkusen forward Boniface scored the most with six of his efforts hitting the back of the net while Kelechi Iheanacho came second with four strikes, Victor Osimhen and Gift Orban both found the back of the net three times.
That session was halted after 30 minutes and the players were divided into two teams of 11 each for a practice match which lasted close to an hour and ended in a 1-1 draw with Awoniyi efforts canceled by Samuel Chukwueze.
Ade Emmanuel
