Nigeria sealed a spot in the play off for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations after finishing as group winners despite drawing their last game 1-1 against Cape Verde in Lagos.
The Super Eagles were fortunate to escape with a draw against the hard fighting Cape Verde team. Their early lead courtesy of Victor Osimhen was cancelled out five minutes later.
Cape Verde made it difficult for Nigeria to have any form of rhythm and although they failed to properly trouble the defence of Nigeria, they however didn’t make qualification easy for Nigeria.
A nervy finish ensued with Nigeria hanging on to seal progress and coach of the team Gernot Rohr says the draw feels like a win for his team as it helped them achieve their aim of qualifying for the play off.
”First of all, sometimes a draw can be like a victory. It was the case today because we wanted to qualify and we know that a draw is already qualification. It was not an easy game because Cape Verde have a very good technical team”, Rohr said.
“They scored a goal in the moment where we believe we have the game in our hands but we missed a lot of chances in the first half especially and I think that we deserve to score a second goal. Second goal was not coming, So we have to defend this draw and the players did it very well”.
