A third minute goal by Pervis Josué Estupiñán was good enough for Ecuador to pick a narrow 1-0 win against the senior national team of Nigeria in an international friendly in the United States of America.
Nigeria failed to deal with an early freekick with Faisal Sani guilty of ball watching and Chidozie Awaziem unaware of his surrounding allowing Estupiñán to head across Francis Uzoho for the game’s opening goal.
That goal sparked the Nigerian team to life as they immediately seized the momentum with Cyriel Dessers handed a clear chance but with the goalkepper at his mercy he shot tamely directly at him.
Terem Moffi was next to miss a glift edged chance when his header from a poorly cleared corner kick was kept out by Alexander Dominguez who was in goal for Ecuador.
Dominguez was by far the busiest in the second half, twice denying Dessers from close range and was lucky not to concede when a cross from Moses Simon had him beaten but Emmanuel Dennis somehow failed to divert the ball to goal.
He was also beaten by another cross from Simon but once again Dennis failed to direct his header on target. It wasn’t all Nigeria though as Uzoho has to be called upon twice to keep the scores at 1-0 with few minutes left in the game.
The defeat means the Super Eagles have now lost back to back friendly games which are tune up games for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sierra Leone and Sao Tome and Principe on the 9th and 13th of March respectively.
