Nigeria’s Super Eagles were held to a 0-0 draw by Rwanda in their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers Match Day two game played in Kigali on Tuesday, www.aclsports.com reports.
Super Eagles, boosted by the comfortable win over Benin in their qualification opener, created tonnes of chances but could not find the winning goal in the match decided at a packed Amahoro Stadium.
Interim coach Austin Eguavoen deployed almost the same XI that thumped Benin on Saturday with Fisayo Dele-Bashiru coming in for Alex Iwobi as the only change before kick-off.
It took Nigeria a while to get going as the Amavubi held them in the opening exchanges. The backline led by William Troost-Ekong stood tall with goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali coordinating things from his goalline.
After the Eagles weathered the storm, it took the brilliance of Rwanda goalkeeper Fiacre Ntwari and the woodwork to deny the three-time African champions from going in front.
Firstly, Lookman went on a mesmerising run before his shot was saved by Ntwari before Boniface crashed his effort against the woodwork after some nice exchange of passes involving Lookman and Chukwueze. At the other end, Nwabali was barely tested as the home side continued to shoot from distance as the half came to an end.
Before the restart, Eguavoen made changes to his team with Victor Osimhen and Moses Simon replacing Boniface and Chukwueze respectively. Those changes added more bite to the Eagles attack as they continued to search for the first goal against Rwanda.
Moments later, Simon latched onto a pass from Wilfred Ndidi but Ntwari was quick off his line to thwart the danger before going ahead to deny Osimhen on multiple occasions in the match.
Meanwhile, Nwabali was called into action late on and he managed to push the ball to safety. in the end, the two sides settled for a share of the spoils.
Nigeria, who stay top of the group after two rounds of matches, will face Libya in a double header when the AFCON qualifiers resume next month.
