Nigeria made it two wins out of two World Cup qualification after a 3-1 success over Algeria.
It was a victory largely masterminded by midfielder John obi Mikel. The Chelsea midfielder may be struggling for opportunities at club level, but he continues to remain as one of the key players for the national team. After having missed out on the 2017 African Cup of Nations, the national team are desperate to achieve qualification to the World Cup 2018 without any hiccups. After a close fought 2-1 win over Zambia in the opening group match, they have managed to beat former African Cup of Nations champions Algeria.
German coachGernot Rohr has been in charge of Nigeria from September 2016. He says that Mikel was an important catalyst in the victory. The 29-year-old played the full 90 minutes against Algeria.
The game also witnessed another significant contribution from a Chelsea player, as Victor Moses scored two goals to secure this brilliant victory. He scored his first goal in the 25th minute while Mikel extended their advantage just before half-time. An injury time goal once again from Moses helped ease the nerves after Algeria had threatened to come back into the match through Bentaleb’s goal.
Nigeria’s next match is against Cameroon at home but not untilAugust 2017.“It’s still a long way to go but we’re on the right path.We had a great first half, but the second half was difficult. We suffered in the second half, but the players were not nervous, they are professional. We played on the counter-attack when it became 2-1 and we got our third goal from a fast break. We defended well. We were organised against Riyad Mahrez and Islam Slimani and we largely kept them quiet,” said the Nigeria coach after the game.