Former Nigeria U-17 head coach Emmanuel Amuneke has urged caution against overreacting to the incident between Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman during Nigeria’s Round of 16 clash, SportPremi reports.
Nigeria recorded an emphatic 4-0 win over Mozambique in the Round of 16 at the ongoing African Cup of Nations tournament last Monday to progress into the last tournament.
However, the win was marred by an on-field incident in the second half between star striker Osimhen and Lookman.
With the Super Eagles up by three goals and readying to play a corner kick, the former angrily confronted the latter after his promising run on goal was ignored.
Osimhen shouted loudly “Hey it’s a team game”, while Lookman responded “But you already scored two goals.”
The Galatasaray striker, who moved to 34 goals for the national team and only three behind record holder Rashidi Yekini, refused to participate in play after the incident and requested to be subbed off.
He also refused to join the post match celebrations and was the first player to join the team bus for departure from the Fez Stadium.
In his post-match reaction after the match, man-of-the-match award winner Lookman played down any bad blood between both players.
Meanwhile, head coach Eric Chelle also stated that the matter will be settled internally, while captain Wilfried Ndidi quelled rumours of division in the team.
Nigeria will face Algeria later tomorrow, as they hope for a victory to advance to the next round of the tournament in Morocco.
Amuneke reacts to Osimhen’s on-field incident
Former Nigerian head coach Emmanuel Amuneke, who coached Osimhen at the 2015 FIFA World Cup, where Nigeria won a fifth title, believes the Galatasaray forward’s passion got the better of him.
“Osimhen is one with a lot of character. It’s only when you come close to him that you can really understand him”, Amuneke said.
“It’s not that he is a bad person. He has the character of a person who wants to win. There are always issues within a team. We shouldn’t make too much out of it. I was privileged to know Lookman.
“He’s an open-minded person who likes to relate with people. We need different characters in our team in order to succeed”, he concluded.
Nigeria and Algeria will clash in Marrakesh on Saturday, with the winner progressing to the next round for a last four clash against Morocco or Cameroon.
