Coach Stephen Keshi has expressed satisfaction with the performance of his Home Eagles who yesterday were held to a barren draw by Nations Cup-bound Angola at the Abuja National Stadium.
Despite earlier threats by organised labour to stop the international friendly match, tight se-curity by operatives and last minute parleys saw labour soften their stand as the game kicked off at 4pm.
With scanty fans watching from the stands, the Nigerian side were the more adventurous of both teams. Captained by Chigozie Agbi, who stood between the sticks, the home-Eagles were not awed by the more exposed Angolans, who paraded the likes of Manucho and Flavio in the match.
Others in the starting 11 for Nigeria were Godfrey Oboabona, Juwon Oshaniwa, Gabriel Reuben, Azubuike Egwuekwe, Papa Idris, Obinna Nwachukwu, Sunday Mba, Kabiru Umar, Uche Ossai and Ejike Uzoenyi.
Enugu Rangers’ Uzoenyi proved to be the tormentor in-chief from the left channel of the Angolan area, as the 2012 Afcon-bound side struggled to cope with his pacy runs.
Uzoenyi and Mba were guilty of failing to put the Eagles ahead inside 20 minutes of the game with the latter missing a sitter.
The centre-back pair of Idris and Egwuekwe combined well to keep former Manchester United striker, Manucho quiet throughout the game.
The second half started with Agbim forced into a save from a free kick.
And Keshi threw in the quintet of Bartholomew Ibenegbu, Uche Kalu, Barnabas Imenger, Uche Oguchi and Emmanuel Sunday into the game.
The game ended goalless with Nigeria dominating a larger part of the second half.
Speaking after the game, Coach Keshi expressed satisfaction with the performance of his players. He said that the future was bright for the team and reiterated his desire to pick some of them for next month’s 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Rwanda in Kigali.
“I am totally impressed with how my players played today. We have just stayed some weeks in camp and you can see the improvement in their game. I feel that if this team stay longer together, they would become stronger and play better”, said the former Togo and Mali gaffer.
Also speaking, Angolan Coach, Lito Vidigal said the match has thrown up new challenges for his team, ahead the 2012 Nations Cup start on January 21.
“It was an interesting match and I feel that we have been challenged with what we saw here. I am very excited with the way my boys played but the Nigerians really impressed. It was a good match. The draw was a fair result even though we would have loved to win”, said Coach Vidigal.
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