Nigeria rue missed opportunities after defeat to Cameroon
Nigeria rue misses chances against Cameroon
JOHANNESBURG, June 7 (ANA) – Cameroon beat Nigeria 1-0 in their friendly international match in Vienna, Austria, on Friday in the pick of the eight African matches over the weekend.
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa who plies his trade for English Championship side Fulham, scored the winner in the 37th minute.
Though Nigeria’s coach Gernot Rohr was missing some of his key players, the Super Eagles – as Nigeria are known – were the better side in the opening stage of the encounter, but for their lack of precision in front of goal.
Cameroon goalkeeper Simon Medjo was the game’s hero as he stopped Nigeria attempts to give the Indomitable Lions – as Cameroon are known – their first win over their rivals in regular time since August 27, 1989.
Rohr, who handed the trio, striker Terem Moffi (FC Lorient), Abraham Marcus (CD Feirense) and Valentine Ozornwafor (Galatasaray) their first international caps said: “The most important thing is that we have been able to see some new players because this is just a test match, and it was interesting to see some new players because we missed about seven key players.
“We managed the game well and I think we had 17 shots on goal while they had only three, including one on target and that was the goal.
Rohr added that his side’s domination was not realistic, though they had their chances to score in the early exchanges.
“This is what you get when you don’t take your opportunities. But I still saw some interesting things because we were able to integrate some new players and three of them played for the first time as Super Eagles.
“The importance of friendly games is to learn, see new interesting things and test new players.”
In the other African clash on Friday, hosts Rwanda beat Central African Republic 2-0 at Amahoro Stadium in Kigali. Jacques Tuyisenge and Abdul Rwatubyaye provided the goals for Rwanda.
On Saturday, in the pick of the games hosts Senegal dispatched Zambia 3-1 in Thies.
In the only game played on Sunday, hosts Algeria edged Mali 1-0 in Blida.
African football friendly results:
June 4:
Rwanda 2-0 Central African Republic
Nigeria 0-1 Cameroon
June 5:
Guinea 0-2 Togo
Gambia 2-0 Niger
Ivory Coast 2-1 Burkina Faso
Senegal 3-1 Zambia
Tunisia 1-0 DR Congo
June 6:
Algeria 1-0 Mali – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman