Algeria Vs Nigeria: Day Eagles suffered 5-1 loss to Foxes
When the Nigeria and Algeria meet for an international friendly game in Oran on September 27 , it will be the 22nd meeting at Full international level (male ) between the Super Eagles and the Desert Foxes .
In the previous 21 meetings , both countries have garnered 9 wins apiece while the remaining 3 games have ended in draws .
This edition of ‘History book’ reviews the biggest win margin of this lot , a 5-1 bashing of Nigeria in the opening game of the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations
On that day , a total of 65,000 fans had gathered at the Stade Du 5 Juliet in Algiers for the Group A fixture of the 1990 Africa Cup of Nations .
Algeria were the home team and were charged up to make a convincing start to the AFCON on home soil .
In the starting XI for the Eagles were the likes of Late Rashidi Yekini , Uche Okechukwu , Alloysuis Agu , Daniel Amokachi , Kpakpor , Emma Okocha who scored the consolation goal and a couple of others mostly home based players.
36 minutes into the game , Rabah Madjer scored the opening goal of the contest . It was he who doubled the lead for Algeria in the 58th minute to put the Foxes 2-0 up .
Djamel Menah bagged his own brace when he scored the 3rd and 4th goals . Emma Okocha scored what was a consolation goal for Nigeria in the 82nd minute .
The defeaning cheers from the fans at the stadium was instrumental to the rout of the Sebastien Broderick tutored Eagles and by the time Djamel Amani scored the 5th goal , the Eagles were left drowned in a strange land .
Years later, Kpakpor offered explanation to what caused the heavy loss for the Nigerian team in Algiers that night.
He said ” After the opening goal, we all went out to go and equalise and opened a lot of spaces at the back which they capitalised on because they have players who can run very fast.
“They exploited our open defence and when they countered on four, five occasions I was the only player at the back and then Alloy Agu. And Alloy made a lot of saves because it could have been eight, nine goals.
“And when the goals started pouring in that was when we started hearing the noises from the crowd which made us to be down and dejected. We still tried to do our best and got one goal by Emmanuel Okocha. ” He concluded.
Despite the heavy loss , the Eagles recovered to go all the way to the Final where they came up against the Foxes again .
This time , the Nigerian team delivered a great performance but fell to a 1-0 loss as Algeria were crowned African Champions on home soil .
Nigeria has come close to equaling this win margin on two occasions , the last a 2-5 win for the Eagles in a FIFA World Cup qualification game on September 4, 2005 .
In terms of quality , profile and realities of the moment , a lot has changed since both countries first met on 10th January 1973 a game that ended 2-2.
After a poor run at the AFCON , both countries failed to qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar meaning this friendly game will only serve opportunity for rebuilding their squads after enduring a very underwhelming 2022 .
Algeria have won the last two meetings , a 2-1 2019 AFCON Semi-final win before a 1-0 win in an international friendly on October 9, 2020 .
Ahead of the game on Tuesday, Nigeria engaged the Algeria B team in a test game which ended in a 2-2 draw while Algeria edged Guinea in a friendly game on Friday September 23 .
Super Eagles head coach Jose Paseiro is without some key players who are out with Injury but has enough quality in his arsenal to avoid getting into the history book for the odd reason .
