Eguavoen can take a cue from Emery on how to use important Chukwueze against Ghana
Unai Emery pulled a tactical masterstroke to help Villarreal secure a 3-0 win against Juventus at Allianz Arena in Turin in the Champions League game on Wednesday.
The Spanish outfits who were seeking their first-ever quarterfinal place since 2006 had all to play for in Italy after playing a 1-1 draw in the first leg played in Spain.
Unai Emery and Villarreal needed to play a perfect game away from home against a rejuvenated Juventus team and they duly delivered.
It was shocking when Samuel Chukwueze was dropped for the important game, it looked like the Nigerian may have lost his place to young Yeremi Pino, but in the end, it looked like the decision was a masterstroke.
After containing the home team for 64 minutes, Unai Emery brought in Samuel Chukwueze for Yeremi Pino and Francis Coquelin for Manuel Trigueros.
The substitution quickly paid off as Villarreal was awarded a penalty after Daniele Rugani fouled Francis Coquelin in the area.
Another substitute Gerard Moreno converted the spot-kick in the 78 minutes of the game. Pau Torres scored the second from a corner kick in 85 minutes.
Samuel Chukwueze won the corner after his cross was cleared to the sie by Danilo.
Arnut Danjuma completed the 3-0 rout after converting another penalty.
Juventus looked like the better team until Samuel Chukwueze came in. It was a lot easier for him to operate in the space as he had tired Danilo to deal with.
Everyone knows Samuel Chukwueze needs space to be effective if he doesn’t get the space he becomes ineffective.
Nigeria’s AFCON 2021 second-round game against Tunisia is a perfect example of how ineffective Samuel Chukwueze can be when suffocated.
He is super important to Nigeria securing the world cup ticket ahead of Ghana, but if only coach Austin Eguavoen can take a cue from Unai Emery tactics tonight.
Samuel Chukwueze was brought on against tired Juventus wingback and the decision proved to have worked.
Since Austin Eguavoen likes to play the 4-4-2 formation, Ademola Lookman, Emmanuel Dennis, and Ahmed Musa could start with Samuel Chukwueze playing from the bench.
Ghana will host Nigeria in the first leg of the 2022 World Cup Playoffs on 25th March 2022 with the return leg in Nigeria to follow four days later.
The aggregate winner of both legs will qualify for the 2022 World Cup In Qatar later in the year.
