Mali Stun Super Eagles Of Nigeria With Emphatic Victory In Morocco
The Mali national football team completely outplayed the Super Eagles of Nigeria in an international friendly on Tuesday night, March 26.
Ahead of the international friendly, most football enthusiasts expected that it would be an easy one for the Super Eagles given their 2-1 win over Ghana barely four days ago.
Unfortunately for the Nigerian team, they couldn’t record a successive back-to-back win at the Grand Stade de Marrakech in Morocco as coach Finidi George’s 3-4-3 formation fell flat to the lowly rated Malian team.
During the game, Mali proved to be more composed and had better passing accuracy than the Eagles’ side who were loaded with Europe-based players. The attacking trio of Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Moses Simon were starved of killer passes in the eighteen-yard box.
22-year-old El Bilal Touré opened the scoring in the 18th minute as the Malian dominated most of the first half.
Moses Simon was replaced by Cyriel Dessers in the 34th minute after suffering a knock in Mali’s penalty box which the referee didn’t deem worthy of a spot-kick.
While the Super Eagles were trying to put passes together and attempt a comeback, Mali grabbed the ball and launched a counter which 21-year-old Kamory Doumbia completed to make it 2-0 in the 87th minute.
The goal sealed the victory for Mali as coach Finidi George failed to convince the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) beyond a reasonable doubt that he deserves to be named Eagles’ permanent coach.
