The Super Eagles of Nigeria on Monday night at Fez, Morocco rode on the back of the Mambas of Mozambique in a superlative performance that produced four records and 4-0 victory.
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Nigeria with a backing of fresh gallery of supporters that flew into Fez with more instruments and chants taking over the stadium became the first country to win four consecutive matches at the tournament; first to score four goals in a single match; first team to hit 12 goals in the tournament and make the highest scores over Mozambique erasing the 4-2 record of their CHAN meeting in 2014.
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Osimhen opened scoring in the 2nd minute of play but he was ruled offside; Adams Akor scored the real first goal in the 20th minute from a Lookman Ademola pass and same Lookman in the 25th minute made a cross pass into the box and a Mozambican defender failed to clear his lines for Victor Osimhen to stamp it into an empty net for goal number 2.
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Coming from the dressing room, the Super Eagles showed they were goals hungry and they have been trained to fire from all cylinders like the Nigerian Mobile Police squad when Osimhen got his brace in the 47th minute from Ademola Lookman lob into the box and then came the 75th minute when Lookman stylishly beat undefended Mozambican Goalkeeper who almost held up the game castigating all his defenders and his coach promptly pulled him out of the game.
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A bad side of the Super Eagles that again came to the fore against Mozambique was bagging unnecessary cards for various bad tackles and one that came to the fore apart from Wilfred Ndidi yellow was that of Calvin Bassey in 90+3rd minute and he will be missing the quarterfinal match when CAF confirms that.
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Nigeria will meet the winner between Algeria and DR Congo in the quarterfinal at Marrakesh on Saturday 10th January. Nigeria has been playing all her four games at Fez and will move by Tomorrow Tuesday morning to a less cold city of Marrakesh.
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To get to the round of 16 games Mozambique won only one match against Gabon 3-1; lost to Cameroon1-2 and also lost to Ivory Coast by a lone goal.
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Nigeria dimmed the Taifa Stars of Tanzania 3-1 slammed Carthage Eagles of Tunisia 3-2 and locked out the Red Devils of Uganda 3-1 to emerge highest team scorers at the group stages.
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Both Nigeria and Mozambique met five times with Nigeria winning four times with a drawn one scoring 11 goals from the 15 goals scored between them. Of the five times they met, one of the matches was a group C match of the 2010 tournament that Nigeria locked up Mambas 3-0 on 20th January. Highest win by Nigeria was a 4-2 slammer of 15th January 2-14 at a CHAN meeting.
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In the two legged world cup qualifier of 29th March 2009 Nigeria forced Mozambique to a goalless draw and in the return match played in Nigeria on 11th October 2009 the Eagles pecked Mozambique 1-0 and in a friendly match of 16th October 2023 Nigeria won away 3-2.
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Although Mozambique ranked 102 in the world has been to the AFCON party six times now this is the first time the team is getting to the round of 16 games as they were sent out at the group stages in all previous appearance.
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Nigeria ranked 38 in the world is making her 21st appearances at the mundial winning the title three times in 1980, 1994 and 2013 won Silver five times and Bronze eight times showing Big Brother Naija.
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CAF has raised the prize money for the AFCON winner to USSD $10m but two Heads of State are using the carrot and stick model of motivation to induce their countries to win the R16 games. Tallest Head of State standing at 2.7 m whose birthday is a day after his country Mozambique meeting with Nigeria has offered each player and officials an equivalent of N11.3m (eleven point three million Naira). Benin has also promised her players a handsome amount to beat the most decorated African Champions with seven titles,
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Nigeria has automatically halted the 49th birthday party of their Country’ Tallie President which is tomorrow. Patmos Media could not get President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria’s Specia Adviser, Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga to know whether their will be a Presidential Birthday Greeting laced with apologies for drubbing his boys proved abortive.
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An unnamed Nigerian Billionaire supporter of the Super Eagles has promised $10k (N14m) per goal scored against Mozambique. He gave $5k per goal scored at the group stages meaning that $40k is in the coffers already for the Eagles. The Super Eagles bagged $40k gift for the pecking of the Mambas of Mozambique in the R16 game.
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Last round of the 16 matches will be played tomorrow Tuesday when Algeria battles DR Congo at 5pm and Ivory Coast will trade tackles against fellow West Africans Burkina Faso at 8pm.
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A battle of two Eagles will be seen in the first quarterfinal on Friday 9th January at 5pm when Eagles of Mali faces the Teranga Lions of Senegal. At 9pm that night Cameroon will tackle host Morocco in the 2nd quarterfinal.
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