Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen‘s scintillating form continued on Sunday as his brace, combined with Kelechi Iheanacho‘s stoppage time winner, saw the Super Eagles beat Sierra Leone 3-2 to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast in January.
It was a closer battle than the Super Eagles would have liked, especially given their history against the Leone Stars. Nigeria fans were given echoes of that nightmarish collapse from 4-1 to 4-4 against the same opponent not so long ago.
They watched their team go two goals up within the opening 30 minutes, only to give up two goals of their own to tie the game 2-2 with six minutes left to play. But there was to be no deja vu, as Zaidu Sanusi‘s jinking run set up Iheanacho for an easy tap-in during injury time.
Having qualified for AFCON with a game to spare, there are still a few talking points for coach Jose Peseiro to consider.
Osimhen is writing his way into the history books
With 10 shots on target, Nigeria could have been well out of sight of Sierra Leone in the first half, and it would have been mostly down to Serie A golden boot Osimhen.
The Napoli striker, with the prospect of a mega transfer looming this offseason, could have been forgiven for approaching the game with a play safe mentality to avoid injury. But that attitude is alien to Osimhen.
He was a constant menace to the Sierra Leone back four, putting them under pressure with his pressing and aggression. The two goals he helped himself to were just reward for his efforts, but not only could he have had a hat-trick, he could have finished with at least four assists if Samuel Chukwueze, Moses Simon and Kelechi Iheanacho had put away the clear goalscoring opportunities he created for them.
In any case, the forward’s two goals saw him move up to joint sixth, with Sunday Oyerukhua, in Nigeria’s all time scorer’s list with 17 goals, leapfrogging Odion Ighalo and Ahmed Musa. It has taken him only 26 games to get there, giving him the all-time best goals to games ratio (0.65) of any Nigeria striker.
