OneFootball
Emily Wilson·16 November 2023
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Emily Wilson·16 November 2023
Nigeria kicked off their World Cup qualifying campaign on Thursday but not the way they would have wanted to.
The 40th-ranked Super Eagles welcomed 153rd Lesotho to town, but the points were shared in what will go down as a shock draw in front of home fans.
The visitors opened the scoring after a leaping header from Motlomelo Mkhwanazi saw the entire substitutes bench rush the pitch in celebration.
Semi Ajayi later equalised but the African giants couldn’t find a way to win it despite a plethora of players from the big leagues available.
Eight of Lesotho’s starting 11 play their football in their home country which has a population of only 2.3 million compared to Nigeria’s population of 213.4 million.
After the game, manager Leslie Nots shared that the key was to “not give them [Nigeria] respect.”
“The [approach] was not to go out and waste time, but the self-belief should be there and [we] should express ourselves … we saw areas where we said ‘this is where we can capitalise’ … there’s a lot we have earned from this match so we have to cherish that.”
Forever a result to remember!