Nigeria recorded an emphatic 4-0 win over Mozambique in their Round of 16 clash on Monday night, but the win was overshadowed by an on-field confrontation between Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman, SportPremi reports.
The Super Eagles marched on to the last eight at the ongoing African Cup of Nations tournament with a dominant win over the Mambas at the Fez Stadium.
The three-time African champions had won all three of their games in the group stage, while Mozambique were participating in the knockout rounds for the first time in history after finishing third in group F.
- Read more:
- Ademola Lookman reacts to Nigeria’s win over Mozambique
- Lookman downplays incident with Osimhen in Nigeria’s AFCON win
Nigeria started brightly and had an early goal ruled out for offside after Osimhen failed to time his run properly.
However, they got their deserved goal inside 20 minutes when Lookman fired in after a defence-splitting pass from Alex Iwobi had found Akor Adams inside the box.
Osimhen got his goal and Nigeria’s second of the night as he applied the finishing touch to a Lookman’s cross, which was deflected into his path by Adams.
The Galatasaray forward doubled his tally two minutes after the restart with another neat finish after an assist by Lookman, before Adams completed the scoring late on in the match.
What happened between Osimhen and Lookman
With Nigeria leading 3-0, Osimhen confronted Lookman before a corner kick, voicing his frustration after not being picked out despite making a promising run.
Lookman had opted to go for goal himself instead of playing in Osimhen, a decision that left the striker visibly unhappy.
The Galatasaray forward was then taken off after the incident, with Moses Simon replacing him in the 68th minute.
What Eric Chelle said after the match
Speaking in his post match press conference, Eric Chelle who has now guided Nigeria to four wins so far in Morocco, played down the incident and believes it will be sorted among the team.
“This is a question about my management and what happened in the pitch will stay in the group, I don’t need to tell anyone what happened”, Chelle revealed.
“I keep that for me and everything that happened in the group stay in the group so we will see after that and we will talk.”
The Super Eagles head coach also expressed delight at the overall performance as they prepare for their quarterfinal final showdown.
“I’m happy about this game winning by four goals but in reality we didn’t do anything special, we just won one game. If we want to be ambitious we need to continue to improve and keep this quality on the pitch”, he added.
“My job now is to keep the players very focus about their training sessions and behaviour.”
Nigeria will now face the winner of the clash between Algeria and DR Congo in the last eight of the competition next Saturday.
