Austin Eguavoen, coach of the Super Eagles, has lamented his team’s missed chances in Friday’s goalless draw against Ghana in the first leg of a 2022 World Cup play-off in Kumasi.
Both teams played out a tense but entertaining 0-0 draw at Kumasi’s Baba Yara stadium, with the Eagles having a clear chance to score an away goal.
The Eagles best chance fell to Moses Simon in the 55th minute when he raced on to a pass from Kelechi Iheanacho but he failed to shoot past the exposed Black Stars goalkeeper.
VAR then ruled out a penalty for the Super Eagles in the 75th minute after a replay showed Baba Idrissu of Ghana was fouled before he handled the ball inside his own box.
“Ghana are a very tough team,” Eguavoen said.
“We had two clear chances to just finish Ghana, but I think getting a draw is good even though we wanted to win here (in Ghana).0-0, I think it’s still good enough.
“The biggest positive we take from this is that we did not lose. We got a good result and our team was very organised and disciplined. But it was a good game and we are happy with the result.”
“This is not over,” he said. “It is just the first half of this game, and there is still the second leg to play. I was not happy with the way we were letting them win some balls and get into spaces, but we will sort that out in the second leg.
“We don’t expect an easy game in Abuja, but we are confident that we can win and qualify.”
Nigeria will be the happier of the two sides ahead of Tuesday’s second leg but with the away goals rule in place, Ghana know any score draw – at the Abuja Stadium where Nigeria have not played a home match in over a decade – will take them to their fourth finals.