AFCON SPOTLIGHT: Nigeria Retains Top Spot In Group D and Egypt narrowly wins
Salah Shines As Super Eagles Cruise To Knockout Stage
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By @jehoshua-shey
Jan 16, 2022
The Liverpool hitman turned up the heat to ensure that Egypt's chances of progressing to the knockout stage didn't go sour while the Super Eagles made light work of the Falcons of Jediane to confirm their presence in the knockout stages.
The final matchday of group D will only serve as a table arrangement for the Super Eagles while the rest teams will be hoping to claim the second spot with Egypt needing a draw against Sudan and hoping that Nigeria do what they managed to do against Guinea-Bissau.
The group leaders - Nigeria, easily overpowered the Sudanese as a gulf in quality was clearly highlighted over 90 mins. Samuel Chukwueze opening the scoring with an assist from Moses Simon in the 3rd minute and on the stroke of half time, Awoniyi showed excellent reflexes to convert a squeaky-bum opportunity in the Sudanese area for Nigeria's second goal and his first of the tournament.
Moses Simon provided the third goal for Nigeria after the break with a beautiful Solo effort to cap what was a fine performance from the Nigerian winger. In the 70th minute, Walieldin Khedr pulled one back for the Sudanese with a top right corner penalty after a clumsy challenge in the box from Nigeria's Ola Aina.
Those who left the stadium then would only have missed the near goal attempts and beautiful runs from both teams as both teams were done scoring. In the end, it was Nigeria taking all three points with a commendable 3-1 victory over the Sudanese.
Egypt faired worse in their encounter against Guinea-Bissau as the once dominant African heavyweights relied on a solitary strike from Mohamed Salah and a late intervention from VAR to steal all three points.
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The Egyptian talisman who had struggled to find the back of the next in his last six outings with the Pharaohs converted a fine volley after an anonymous performance reminiscent of his contributions versus Nigeria.
The Egyptians needed sixty-nine minutes to break through the Guinea-Bissau backline and get a goal as the West African minnows gave the Pharaohs a good run for their talent.
Fifteen minutes later, the blushes of the Egyptian performance was saved by VAR who chalked a goal by Mama Balde from the score sheet for an earlier foul in the build up by the same player.
In the end, it won't matter how the win came as the final qualification spot is definitely the Pharaohs' to give-away all thanks to Mohamed Salah.
FINAL SCORES
NIGERIA 3 - 1 SUDAN
GUINEA-BISSAU 0 - 1 EGYPT
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