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LEICESTER City striker
Kelechi Iheanacho has
reacted to Nigeria’s 2-2
draw with Saudi Arabia in
an international friendly at
the Estádio Municipal de
Portimão on Friday evening,
Soccernet.ng reports.
Iheanacho started the
game on the bench as head
coach Jose Peseiro preferred
Victor Boniface and Victor
Osimhen to lead the attack
for the Super Eagles.
Nigeria created the best
chances of the encounter
in the opening hour. Still,
they fell behind against the
run of play after goalkeeper
Francis Uzoho made a mess
of Salman Al Faraj’s direct
free-kick.
Iheanacho replaced
Samuel Chukwueze five
minutes later, and the Super
Eagles celebrated their
equaliser in the 73rd minute
through an Abdulelah Al Amri own goal.
The Leicester City striker
smashed Nigeria into the
lead with a brilliant left-
footed effort into the top
corner from the 2dge of the
box in the 81st minute.
The Super Eagles
could not hold on for the
win, though, as Mohamed
Kanno’s deflected free-kick
deep into stoppage time
earned Saudi Arabia a share
of the spoils.
The draw means Nigeria
have not won any of their
last 15 friendly games, a
poor run that extends back
to 2019. It also ended the
Super Eagles’ three-game
winning streak in all compe- titions, which included vic- tories over Guinea-Bissau,
Sierra Leone, and São Tomé
and Príncipe.
After the encounter,
Iheanacho was disappointed
that Nigeria could not pull
off the win the team desired
against Saudi Arabia.
But the former Manches- ter City forward was keen
on moving on to the Super
Eagles next match.
Iheanacho wrote on
Twitter: “Not the result we
wanted. We learn and focus
on the next game.”
Nigeria will next trade
tackles with Mozambique
on Monday, October 16,
in another international
friendly in Portugal.
