Nigerian Football

IHEANACHO LEADS LEICESTER CITY TO 3-1 WIN OVER ARSENAL

Published

6 years ago

May 9, 2018

Super Eagles striker, Kelechi Iheanacho scored his first premier league goal of the season as Leicester City compounds Arsenal woeful 2018 away matches in 3-1 victory at King Power Stadium.

Iheanacho opened the goal feast, before Jamie Vardy and Rihad Mahrez struck in the second-half to ensure Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s equaliser earlier in the period counts for nothing.
Leicester coach Claude Puel make three changes to their side for this match, with the returning Simpson joined by goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic and striker Kelechi Iheanacho.

Ben Hamer had been preferred to Schmeichel in the previous games without the Dane, but it is Jakupovic who gets the nod this evening, while Iheanacho will hope to provide an extra goal threat having replaced Vicent Iborra in the starting line-up.

Arsene Wenger makes four changes to the side that gave him such a good send-off against Burnley at the weekend with Hector Bellerin and Jack Wilshere joining Alexandre Lacazette in dropping out of the squad altogether having played on Sunday.

Calum Chambers is also absent from the 18, with Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck the quartet to come into their side for Wenger’s penultimate Arsenal team selection.
Jakupovic is called into his first serious piece of action tonight as he dives to his left to push an Iwobi effort behind for a corner.

It was a nice move from Arsenal, but Leicester made it far too easy for them once they got into the box.

Leicester threatens for the first time this evening as Welbeck gives the ball away, allowing Adrien Silva to thread the ball through for Jamie Vardy as the England international stands up holding to create space to shoot, but he forces himself a little wide and Petr Cech is able to turn the ball past the near post.

Leicester are 1-0 up after Iheanacho who fires his finish past Cech after receiving a heading from fellow African Diabate in the 14 minutes of the encounter.

Arsenal’s away woes aren’t easing in a hurry as Konstantinos Mavropanos and Iheanacho clash for a 50:50 with Leicester forward comes off the better but his opponent grabs him by the shirt and pulling him down with referee Graham Scott shown the Greek defender his first red card in his Gunners career.

Wenger makes a change after that red card and Welbeck is the man sacrificed as Shkodran Mustafi replaces him and switching to a 4-2-3 formation with Iwobi wide left and Mkhitaryan wide right.

A chance for Arsenal as Xhaka plays a very smart reverse pass to Iwobi in the area. It goes square to Mkhitaryan, who unleashes a snapshot Jakupovic can only block for a corner. That comes to Aubameyang, who can’t quite do more than poke a shot through a mass of bodies.

Leicester are back on the front foot now and Mahrez holds on to the ball for a long time, trying to do it all himself but eventually blazing his effort a long way over the crossbar.

Leicester win a free kick in a really good position and Mahrez leaves it for Silva, who tries to go under the wall and into the far bottom corner. Cech sees it late but gets down well to make a decent save.

Cech again comes to Arsenal’s rescue here as Iheanacho fires a low strike across goal which the keeper parries away with another smart stop.

Ambitious from Iheanacho as he steals the ball just inside his own half and tries to lob Cech from inside the centre circle, but he puts too much on it.
Arsenal have started this half brightly as well, and they almost level things up! A chipped ball to the left channel finds the overlapping Kolasinac, who drills a low strike against the foot of the near post from a tight angle.

Leicester come pouring forward again and find themselves with a two-on-one far too easily as Vardy gives the ball out to an unmarked Diabate the Malian advances into the area before squeezing the ball under Cech, although the Arsenal keeper gets enough on the ball to take the pace off it before Mustafi is there to clear it off the line.

Despite the constant stream of Leicester chances, it’s Arsenal who are back on level terms an attack down the right as Maitland-Niles whipped the ball into the Foxes box as Aubameyang meets it only to see his first save spectacularly saved by Jakupovic, but the Arsenal striker is there to smash home the rebound to make 1-1 in the 53 minutes of the game.

Mkhitaryan brings down a diagonal ball into the box with a lovely touch before looking to hammer a half-volley towards the near top corner, but it flies over the crossbar.

Nigerian Football

Remo Stars in jinx-breaking win over Rivers United

Published

1 day ago

May 6, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Franck Mawuena at the near post nods home a corner kick by Adams Olamilekan to give Remo Stars their first ever victory over Rivers United.

BY KUNLE SOLAJA

Remo Stars recorded a rare win against Rivers United in what was their first ever defeat of the Port Harcourt side in 10 matches spanning seven years. Monday evening 2-1 win was their first since their maiden encounter with Rivers United in 2017.

Before now, Rivers United had won seven times while three other encounters ended drawn.

The win on Monday put Remo Stars a point behind the table-toppers, Enugu Rangers who will be under severe pressure as Remo Stars aim for their first ever Nigerian Premier League title.

Conceding a last minute goal against Rivers United in last season’s Super 6 encounter was one of the factors that cost Remo Stars the title. Now they put pressure on Enugu Rangers as the race gets to the anchor leg.

Yet it was not an easy win for them as their former star, Andy Okpe was the one that put Rivers United ahead through a penalty kick. He famously scored the winning goal for Rivers United when in the first stanza of the league last year.

He appeared to be hunting his former club again when he was called upon to take the penalty kick after his teammate, Deputy Echeta was fouled in the penalty box in the 18^th minute.

The smart kick beat Kayode Bankole to the wrong side and extended Okpe’s goal tally against his former employers after the superb goal in the first leg in Port Harcourt which Rivers United won by two nil.

In the second half, Remo Stars were all over the game with more area covered and it was not a surprise when Haruna Hadi broke the deadlock in the 68^th minute to give the home fans a lot to celebrate.

With the match inching towards the final minute, Togolese import, Kwame Mawuena headed home from a corner kick by Adams Olamilekan in the 83^rd minute to give the home side the maximum points.

With Monday’s win, Remo Stars moved a point within leaders, Enugu Rangers.

Remo Stars v Rivers United: Past Encounters

3 May 2017 Rivers United 1-0 Remo Stars

13 Aug 2017 Remo Stars 1-3 Rivers United

16 Nov 2017 Rivers United 1-0 Remo Stars

30 Jan 2019 Rivers United 1-0 Remo Stars

31 Mar 2019 Remo Stars 0-1 Rivers United

30 Jan 2022 Remo Stars 1-1 Rivers United

22 May 2022 Rivers United 1-0 Remo Stars

5 May 2023 Rivers United 1-0 Remo Stars

12 Oct 2023 Rivers United 2-0 Remo Stars

Nigerian Football

Nigeria football oxygen provider, GTI congratulates Finidi, new Super Eagles coach

Published

1 day ago

May 6, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Renowned financial investment firm, GTI Group has joined many well-meaning football-loving Nigerians in congratulating the newly appointed Super Eagles Head Coach, Finidi George. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) recently announced the former Super Eagles winger as substantive head coach of the senior national football team, Super Eagles, following the expiration of Jose Peseiro’s contract in March 2024.

As strategic partners to the NFF on the President Federation Cup and the Nigeria Premier Football League respectively, GTI Asset Management and Trust Limited will continue to play a vital role in helping to reposition and restructure Nigeria’s football ecosystem using international best practices.

“The recent appointment of George is a golden opportunity for another indigenous coach to prove his mettle with our senior national team after Stephen Keshi of blessed memory successfully guided the Super Eagles to the 2013 AFCON triumph in South Africa. Therefore, we call on all stakeholders of Nigerian football to rally round George to ensure his tenure is successful,” said GTI Head of Media and Publicity, Andrew Ekejiuba.

It could be recalled that George assisted former coach Peseiro for 20 months during which the Eagles reached the final of the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Côte d’Ivoire, but the team lost narrowly to the hosts by 2-1 in the final game.

Renowned for his attacking prowess and deft touches at the wings during his playing days, George began his club football from the local scene, featuring prominently for Calabar Rovers FC of Calabar and Sharks FC of Port Harcourt before heading to Europe. He won 62 caps for Nigeria, including featuring at the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup finals.

George also won gold, silver and bronze medals from the 1992, 1994, 2000 and 2002 AFCON tournaments.

Prior to his appointment, Finito as he is fondly called by football fans was in charge of two friendly matches in the March 2024 FIFA window where the Super Eagles edged Ghana 2-1 in the first match, ending an 18-year winless streak against the Black Stars, but then lost 2-0 to Mali in the second game.

His first official game will be Nigeria’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Bafana Bafana of South Africa in June and will be followed by the second game against Benin Republic in Uyo and Abidjan respectively. These are must-win ties for the Super Eagles who are lagging in third place in Group C of the African campaign behind Rwanda and South Africa.

Nigerian Football

WAFU B U17 Championship: Garba insists technical crew on course to raise formidable squad

Published

3 days ago

May 5, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Head Coach Many Garba has told thenff.com that the technical crew of Nigeria’s U17 boys, Golden Eaglets that he heads, is firmly on course to raise a squad capable of doing Nigeria proud at the forthcoming WAFU B U17 Championship in Ghana.

The 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup-winning team lead strategist has told Nigerians to discountenance stories of large failures of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests in his team and rather believe that his crew will put together a squad that will do the job of winning a ticket to next year’s Africa U17 Cup of Nations from the tournament in Ghana.

“Let me clear the air on this matter. The genuine U17 players, according to their official document made available to the NFF and the MRI tests conducted by the football body are still in the camp preparing for the WAFU B U17 tournament. When the camp opened last month, the very sincere football academies had to withdraw their players after the MRI tests they conducted showed that their players were on Grade 5. These players had to leave the camp immediately.

“Those who were not sincere and thought they could find a way through one way or the other have been exposed after the NFF conducted its own MRI a few days ago, and found the results earlier presented by their players before entering the camp did not tally with the requirements of the NFF. The NFF insists on players whose results are between Grade 1 – 4. Players on Grade 5 have been asked to leave the camp.

Garba denied that his camp had been thrown into confusion due to results of the MRI tests.

“The good news is that most of the players recorded good grades in their MRI results done at the NFF-approved medical centre, and the team is looking forward to a favourable outing at the WAFU B U17 tournament in Accra, Ghana.”

Another MRI test will be conducted by the medical team of the Confederation of African Football before the beginning of the tournament.

The five-time world champions, who are title holders of the WAFU B U17 Championship, will begin the defence of their title against Burkina Faso on the 16 May.

The team has so far played nine friendly games, winning six, drawing two and losing one.