Nigeria on Monday laboured to a hard-fought 3-2 win against Mozambique at the Estadio Municipal De Albufeira Portimao in Portugal to end their 5 years (15 games) without a win in a friendly game.
Jose Peseiro made nine changes to the squad that played 2-2 with Saudi Arabia on Friday, with only Francis Uzoho and Bruno Onyemaechi the two players retained by the Portuguese tactician, while Jordan Torunarigha and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru were handed their debut appearances by the Portuguese gaffer.
In defence, Peseiro played Bright Osayi-Samuel, Torunarigha, Kenneth Omeruo and Onyemaechi.
It was a new look in the midfield, as the Portuguese opted for trio Frank Onyeka, Raphael Onyedika and Joe Aribo, while in attack Dele-Bashiru and Moses Simon played from the flanks, with Terem Moffi leading the attack.
The Eagles started the better side and created a chance as early as the fifth minute but Moffi saw his well-taken shot parried for a corner kick by the Mambas goalkeeper Hernani Siluane.
Against the run of play, Mozambique took the lead in the seventh minute following a nice counterattack with Geny Catamo coolly slotting the ball past Francis Uzoho, ingot for the Eagles.
Uzoho was caught out of position, leaving Catamo with the easy task of putting the ball into the net with the goalkeeper left crawling.
It took the Eagles 10 minutes to react after conceding, with Moffi again firing a shot that was saved by Siluane.
With 18 minutes on the clock, Siluane will, however, not be able to deny Moffi on the third time of asking as the striker pounced on an initial shot from Onyeka, which the keeper spilled into the path of the Nice striker.
Nigeria almost took the lead two minutes after drawing level but Onyeka was denied by the impressive Siluane, who made another great save to deny the midfielder his first international goal following a great team build-up.
The first half turned out to be a shooting practice for Onyeka, who once again fired another goal-bound shot from the edge of the box to force another save from Siluane, who was Mozambique’s most active player of the game.
Onyeka, however, got the goal he deserved in the 29th minute as he finally got the better of the Mambas keeper to get his first goal for Nigeria after 13 appearances.
With seven minutes to the end of the first half, Mozambique were reduced to 10 men after Edmilson Dove was shown a straight red for pulling down Aribo, who was through on goal.
The Eagles extended their lead with just a few seconds left in the first 45 minutes as Simon converted a penalty awarded for handball in the box.
Despite their numerical advantage Peseiro’s men failed to add to their tally, rather it was the Mambas that scored to reduce the deficit.
Faisal Bangal scored Mozambique’s second goal in the 55th minute with what was just their second shot on target.
Peseiro made several changes after the goal but the Mambas kept their cool to keep the score at 3-2.
Sadiq Umar had a goal disallowed in the 70th minute for an infringement on the goalkeeper.
