Peseiro hopes for more such performances after Eagles set national record winning qualifier 10-0

SUPER Eagles head coach Jose Peseiro has promised Nigerian football fans more of what they got yesterday when his team set a new national record by beating Sao Tome and Principe 10-0 in an African Nations Cup qualifier.

In the away game that took place in Stade d’Agadir in Morocco, the Eagles shook off their recent lethargy and played some scintillating football for the first time in a long while. Known as the Falcons and True Parrots Team, Sao Tome and Principe are ranked 183rd out of 211 by Fifa and most of their players are part-timers.

With a population of just about 214,000, São Tomé and Príncipe is the second-smallest and second-least populous African sovereign state after Seychelles. Located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe consists of two archipelagos about 150 km apart.

Yesterday, the minnows bore the full brunt of the African giant Nigeria, with star striker Victor Osimhen scoring four goals. With yesterday's victory, the Eagles broke Nigeria's 63-year-old record set in 1959 when the then national team known as the Red Devils beat Dahomey 10-1 in the Kwame Nkrumah Cup.

Nigeria stumbled to a 2-1 laboured win over Sierra Leone only on Friday in Abuja, with Victor Osimhen and Alex Iwobi turning the tie around after the Leone Stars took an early lead. This unconvincing performance coming on the back of recent losses to Mexico and Ecuador had turned many Nigerian football fans off.

Yesterday, this was all reversed and more than the eye-catching scoreline, Mr Peseiro said he was pleased with the three points picked in the race for qualification for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. He added that he is also delighted that the Super Eagles are embracing his ideas and improving the team’s organisation on the field of play.

Mr Peseiro said: “It is better for us to get three points, which is more important to us. Of course, I want to improve our organisation on the field because we didn’t train too much with them.

“We want to introduce our ideas and this match was good because they tried to follow our organisation, our style. I am also happy because the guys who entered during the match did as well as those players who started.”

With the victory, Nigeria has gone to the top of Group A with six points and a healthy goal difference. Sierra Leone forced Guinea-Bissau to a 2-2 draw in Freetown to pick up their first point of the qualifying campaign, while Guinea-Bissau sit in second place behind Nigeria on four points, having beaten Sao Tome and Principe 5-1 on matchday one.