Nigeria seek revenge against the Djurtus

Nigeria will go in search of revenge when they face hosts Guinea-Bissau in an Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier at Estadio 24 de Setembro in the early evening of Monday.

Kick-off is at 6pm CAT.

The teams met at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium on Friday evening and the Djurtus claimed a shock 1-0 away win thanks to a first-half strike from Mama Balde.

While the Super Eagles boasted household names in attack (such as Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze and Moses Simon) and created numerous chances, they simply lacked the precision and patience to break down a resilient defence, leading to a surprise triumph that angered the home crowd in Abuja.

The result saw Guinea-Bissau leapfrog to the top of the group A table on seven points, pushing Nigeria down to second on six points. Sierra Leone (third, two points) and Sao Tome & Principe (fourth, one point) complete the quartet and will meet for their clash in Agadir on Sunday.

While the defeat is unlikely to affect Nigeria’s ultimate Afcon ambitions, they will nonetheless be hungry to set the record straight – with coach Jose Peseiro hoping his team enjoy better luck and finishing on Monday evening.

“I think we played very well in the first 30 minutes but didn’t score,” noted the Portuguese tactician. “It showed that our team is better than Guinea-Bissau. I can say bad luck was part of the reason we didn’t win.

“Sometimes the best teams can lose games this way, so everything went bad for us. We deserved much more because we created chances and pushed the opponent back and could have scored five, six goals... it happens in football.”

He added, “If we put up the same performance like we did today we can beat them 3-0 at their place because one team can’t always have good luck all the time.”

Guinea-Bissau coach Baciro Cande, meanwhile, wants his team to forget Friday’s triumph and focus on securing another positive result against their heavyweight opponents.

“For the second leg, we shall go back to plan how best to play Nigeria. Of course, we will be going for another victory. We still respect the Eagles despite our victory,” said Cande.

Nigeria are likely to be without defender Kevin Akpoguma, who suffered a head injury in Friday’s match and was replaced by Semi Ajayi.