Former Nigerian National Team Player and Country Legend, Kanu Nwankwo Popularly Known as 'Papilo' has given his own piece of mind as regards to the AFCON Qualifier double-legged encounter between Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

The Super Eagles welcomed the Leone Star In Benin City, Nigeria for the First Leg of an Entertaining Encounter which ended four goals apiece for each Side. The Super Eagles of Nigeria blew up a four goal lead as they allowed the visitors peg them back four times. The Match was one to forget for the eagles but a Memorable one for the Leone star who were happy to go home with a valuable one point full of confidence.


The Much Anticipated Second leg played in the Capital City of Sierra Leone, Freetown was as well a disappointing one for the Super Eagles of Nigeria as they failed to come back victoriously. The Eagles had a goal wrongfully disallowed after Iwobi was said to be offside despite video replays showing him well onside before crossing the ball for Kelechi Iheanacho to head home. The Pitch wasn't a good one for good football either.

Well, speaking after the Game, Kanu Nwankwo who was part of the famous 'Atlanta 96' gold medal winning team was filled with positivity with the team as he believed the players showed sign of improvements

“Going by the game [on Tuesday], the Super Eagles did not concede any goal and to me, that is a sign of improvement,” Kanu told Goal

“To me, that is not a bad result when compared with what happened in Nigeria. They should have won in Freetown but as we all saw, their pitch was bad and I’m sure our players were playing with caution to avoid a repeat of what happened in Benin City.

The Former Arsenal Man also Affirmed his Confidence in the Super eagles as he believes the team will still qualify while also making it clear that football has gone past the stage of underrating any team.

“The fact remains that we have to qualify for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, and I believe that the boys will get the job done.”

“In the first leg, we scored four goals in the first 30 minutes, that is Nigeria playing but the scoreline changed in the second half,” he continued.

“We must realize that football is a sport where one plus one will never give you two. The game against Sierra Leone is a wake-up call or maybe it is trying to point our attention to something we are not doing right.


“But honestly speaking, football has really changed and those countries we call whipping teams have grown and are not where they used to be.

“Not being able to beat Sierra Leone is not a sign of decline, we still have the quality players who can score five goals against any team in the world. All we just need to do is learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating them again.”