Super Eagles and Leicester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho struck a brace in the first half to hand Nigeria a 2-0 win over Liberia in their first 2022 World Cup Group C qualifier played at Teslim Balogun Stadium on Friday.
Nigeria was clearly the better side of the two in the opening minutes of the match taking over possession with Wilfred Ndidi bossing the midfield. Victor Osimhen be and was always the danger man on the flanks with his deft touches and swift turning ability.
The combination of Napoli’s Osimhen and Leicester Iheanacho was lethal to the Liberian backline as it kept them on their toes.
Super Eagles had the first big chance in the 10th minute after Moses Simon delivered an inviting cross to the far post but Osimhen close range strike was saved on the line by Liberia goalkeeper Ashley Williams.
Gernot Rohr’s charges gained momentum after that and came close to breaking the deadlock in the 15 th minute after Wilfred Ndidi cross found Iheanacho, who headed over the crossbar.
Peter Butler’s army had a chance of their own five minutes later after Ayouba Kosiah went clear on goal, but his attempted lob sailed over the crossbar with only Maduka Okoye to beat.
The hosts eventually broke the deadlock on the 23rd minute courtesy of Iheanacho after a well-worked play from midfielder Alex Iwobi.
Kpah Sherman forced Maduka into a brilliant save from close range, after the Malaysia-based forward was picked out by Marcus Macauley.
Iwobi and Iheanacho would combine once again at the stroke of haltime in almost similar fashion to hand Nigeria the double advantage.
The early stages of the second stanza did not produce a lot of goal-mouth action but goalkeeperWiliams almost gifted Nigeria the third goal on the hour-mark, as his clearance from the back ricocheted off Iheanacho and just missed the open net.
In the 67th minute substitute David Tweh came close to scoring when he met a Jeremy Saygbe cfree-kick, but he headed inches over from close range.
Ten minutes later Samuel Kalu made his way into the Liberia box, but Williams was at his best yet again with another fine stop from 16-yards out.
Liberia threw numbers forward in the final ten minutes of the game, but were unable to find the back of the net and Nigeria grabbed maximum points.
Super Eagles go top of Group C with three points ahead of Cape Verde and Central African Republic (CAR), who have a point apiece.
