Super Eagles Manage 1-1 Draw With Tunisia And Show Solidarity With #ENDSars Campaign

Nobody cared for this game. Protests have swept across several cities in Nigeria joined by the diaspora around the world as young Nigerians call for the end to police brutality.

It is this campaign that has dominated social media in the past week that only a few even remember that the Super Eagles lost 1-0 in a friendly on Friday, October 9, 2020.

Several Super Eagles players have since joined the campaign online but they showed more solidarity with some raised fist while they celebrated their goal.

It was Kelechi Iheanacho who scored in the 19th minute to give the Super Eagles a goal they deserved.

Unlike the game against Algeria on Friday, the Super Eagles started brightly and the better side against Tunisia.

Samuel Chukwueze could only blast wide in the fourth minute while Moses Simon failed to cause more trouble for the Tunisian from a good area in the left.

Around the 10th minute mark, Iheanacho had a chance to run at goal before he was brought down just after the centre circle.

From the resultant freekick, the ball fell nicely for Kelvin Akpoguma whose effort at goal was blocked.

At the other end, Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye was in the 14th minute forced into a good save from a header off a corner kick but the referee spotted an infringement and gave a freekick to Nigeria.

Playing in a deeper role, Alex Iwobi played a fine ball to Iheanacho who could not catch up but minutes later, the Leicester City striker got another chance which he converted.

Iheanacho got on a ball in the box, held off a defender and turned before finishing past the goalkeeper.

He would have made it 2-0 if he had not missed a penalty. Iwobi, again, curled a through ball to Ahmed Musa who was fell by the Tunisian goalkeeper. From the penalty spot, Iheanacho’s tame effort was early saved.

The Super Eagles continued to play some good football. Simon and Iheanacho exchanged the ball well while Chukwueze should have done better with a pass to Musa which he over hit.

Iheanacho’s penalty miss came back to hurt Nigeria as the Tunisian found an equaliser before the halftime whistle. Hamza Rafia did well to dribble past Kenneth Omeruo before cutting back for Mohamed Drager to finish off.

The quality of the game dropped in the second half as both sides struggled to create anything. For the first 20 minutes of the second half, the game, both sides failed to get any penetration in the final third despite the game being played at a good space.

Despite the changes-four on each side- the game failed to spark as the spoils were shared.

For Nigerians, it didn’t matter. Apart from one or two spots on the trends, it was the protest everyone was talking.