The Carthage Eagles of Tunisia held the Nigeria’s Super Eagles to a 1-1 draw in an international friendly played in Austria on Tuesday.
Both sides scored in the first half as the second half looked more of experimentation as regards to the friendly.
Nigeria and Tunisia had their chances to win the match but the goalkeepers proved decisive for both sides.
As we look forward to the returning of players to their respective clubs in view to checkmating their performances ahead of the African
Nations Cup qualifier slated for November, these and more are salient questions Gernot Rohr and the Super Eagles must answer
Who is Nigeria’s penalty taker?
In the past, players like Austin Okocha (Jay-Jay), Obinna Nsofor and at some point and John Mikel Obi held the penalty duty in the team.
While Victor Moses shared the same role alongside Emmanuel Emenike in their own time.
The Eagles’ is spoilt with options as to who to take charge of this duty going forward in the future.
Players like Victor Osimhen, Kelechi Iheanacho and Odion Ighalo had held sway in this duty in recent past.
But with Ighalo now retired from the national team it remains to be seen who gets this role in the days ahead.
Why is Nigeria struggling to score?
The Super Eagles have got decent attacking talent options as we all know with the likes of Ahmed Musa captaining a host of impressive forwards in the team.
Guys like Cyriel Dessers, goal scorer Kelechi Iheanacho and Paul Onuachu had had their fair share of game time on the pitch but it was Iheanacho that managed to find the back of the net.
He missed a penalty later on in the game. And this sums up the team’s lack of goals as we ponder why goals are farfetched from the team.
The quality of the RC Genk forwards (Paul Onuachu) and Cyriel Dessers should produce the goals.
But they struggled to find the back of the net especially for the former who was not picked for the match against Tunisia due to his poor form against Algeria.
This should be a course for worry even as trickery winger likes Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze and debutant Chidera Ejuke are capable of adding goals to their game for Nigeria.
What does the future hold for Nigeria?
The Super Eagles may have drawn with Tunisia and lost to Algeria 0-1 but there is hope for real optimism ahead of future games for Nigeria.
It was good to see Kevin Ufuoma Akpoguma play alongside Leon Balogun and Kenneth Omeruo in defence just as Akpoguma replaced Tyronne Ebuehi in the Starting XI.
The manager Gernot Rohr is spoilt for choices in the defence as they made do without stand-in-skipper William Troost-Ekong in defence against Tunisia.
The attack as we know is full of quality even as Joshua Maja and Ademola Lookman expect possible call-ups in the days ahead.
All this could spur Nigerian fans on, irrespective of the outcome of the friendly matches they’ve played.
Gernot Rohr must work hard to create a balance in the team with a quest for a good midfield.
