Alex Iwobi provided an assist and put up a Man of the Match performance as Nigeria defeated Libya 4-0 at the Nest of Champions in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
The Arsenal youngster took up the no. 10 role in the absence of Captain John Mikel Obi and provided a hot-knife-through-butter pass to China based Odion Ighalo for Nigeria’s 2nd for the evening. Ighalo had put the Super Eagles ahead in the 4th minute from the spot but needed to score from open play to silence critics and break his 10 games jinx. He rounded the goalie for the 2nd goal.
Alex Iwobi was in the thick of things again for Nigeria’s third. His through pass yet again found race-runner Ahmed Musa who squared in for Ighalo to grab his hat-trick. It was a first Super Eagles hat-trick since Chisom Chikatara in January 2016. Can Nigerians get off his back now?
Samuel Kalu curled in a beauty from outside the box in the 90th minute to make it 4-0. It was good to see Henry Onyekuru subbed in, although he was so eager he missed a chance. Nice of him to grab the assist to Kalu’s goal. Jamilu Collins had a good debut.
While the performance could be improved on, the win puts the Super Eagles 2nd on the table with 6pts, behind South Africa who battered Seychelles 6-0.
In other news, Thierry Henry is the new coach of Monaco while Laurent Koscielny has called it quits with Les Blues. It was sad that he and Payet missed out of the World Cup party. I love Kos the boss. Hopefully he returns to full fitness and lead the Gunners to glory.
Photo-credit: Alex Iwobi on Twitter.
SoccerGunz 