AFCON: Nigeria, Equitorial Guinea end their first match 1-1 draw

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Nigeria and Equitorial Guinea’s match ended 1-1 draw. The Equitorial Guinea scored first while Nigeria equalized almost immediately in less than five minutes.

The Super Eagles had entered the match in business-like controlling the first 10 minutes.

The Equitorial Guinea side, however, gained confidence and pushed, with
Salvador fires his team into shock lead, which the Nigerians replied immediately with a header from Osimhen.

The game appeared to be balanced thereafter with flashes and misses from the Super Eagles, including Victor Osimhen.

Towards end of the second half, actions were upbeat inside that Equatorial Guinea box as Nigeria threw everything at getting a last-gasp winner, with efforts and challenges flying in everywhere.

Nigeria’s bid for a fourth AFCON title overall and a first since South Africa in 2013 is not helped by a wave of injuries that will see them without the likes of Victor Boniface, Wilfred Ndidi, Taiwo Awoniyi and Umar Sadiq for the entire tournament, but Portuguese head coach Jose Peseiro still boasts one of the strongest squads on the continent led by the likes of Napoli striker Victor Osimhen and AC Milan’s Samuel Chukwueze, who is surprisingly only named on the bench.

While they will be expected to get off to a winning start today, their opponents, led by former Middlesbrough and Birmingham man Emilio Nsue, could pose a tough test having finished fourth at the 2015 competition and also reached the quarter-finals on two other occasions in the last 11 years. Follow Nigeria vs Equatorial Guinea at AFCON live below!