Super Eagles sink Lesotho as Osimhen nets twice in AFCON Qualifiers

The Super Eagles of Nigeria are in cruise control in their bid to qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations billed to take place in Cameroon as they romped to a 4-2 win over Lesotho in their second game of the qualifying series.

Victor Osimhen banged in two goals and also provided two assists in the impressive win recorded by the Super Eagles.

Coach Gernot Rohr’s men had started the qualifiers with a 2-1 win over the Squirrels of Benin Republic. Even though they had to come from behind yet again in Sunday’s tie in Maseru, they did so in style finishing with the commendable scoreline.

It was the Crocodiles that struck first when Masoabi Nkoto jumped above his marker – Semi Ajayi – to head home the curtain-raiser for the hosts.

However, Nigeria rallied back as Osimhen connected well with Iwobi and the Everton man made no mistake slotting home from close range.

The continued pressure by the Eagles saw them shoot in front with Samuel Chukwueze heading home to give Nigeria’s Super Eagles a 2-1 lead going into the half time.

For all his hard work in the first half, Osimhen after coming quite close on a number of occasions capped his wonderful display with two goals in the second to give Nigeria a massive 4-1 lead.

However, in the latter stages of the game, Lesotho got some sort of consolation as Chidozie Awaziem scored an own goal as the game finally ended 4-2 in favour of Nigeria.

Before Sunday’s tie, Lesotho have only suffered two defeats at the Setsoto Stadium in the past three years, the most recent being a 2-0 2019 AFCON qualifier loss to Uganda on October 2018.

Though Nigeria would be proud to have made it two wins in two games in the Afcon qualifying series, the need to get it in the defence cannot be overemphasized.

With Sunday’s outcome, the Super Eagles have conceded in eight of their last nine games.

The only clean sheet within this period was the 1-0 third/fourth place victory over Tunisia at the 2019 AFCON tournament in Egypt.