In the first of their scheduled double-header friendlies in Austria, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon defeated the Super Eagles of Nigeria 1-0 at the Stadion Wiener Neustadt in Vienna, Austria.
Fulham midfielder André-Frank Zambo Anguissa scored the game’s lone goal after 35 minutes with a well-struck low shot behind goalkeeper Maduka Okoye.
Though Nigeria’s coach Gernot Rohr was missing some of his key players, the Super Eagles were the better side in the opening stage of the encounter, but for their lack of precision in front of goal.
Cameroon goalkeeper Simon Medjo was the game’s hero as he stopped Nigeria attempts to give the Indomitable Lions their first win over their rivals in regular time since 27 August 1989.
Rohr, who handed the trio, striker Terem Moffi (FC Lorient), Abraham Marcus (CD Feirense) and Valentine Ozornwafor (Galatasaray) their first international caps, reiterated that the objectives of the international friendly against the five-time African champions had been partly met.
“The most important thing is that we have been able to see some new players because this is just a test match, and it was interesting to see some new players because we missed about seven key players,” the German coach explained. “We managed the game well and I think we had 17 shots on goal while they had only three, including one on target and that was the goal.
“Our domination was not realistic enough though we had the chance to score in the early minutes. This is what you get when you don’t take your opportunities. But I still saw some interesting things because we were able to integrate some new players and three of them played for the first time as Super Eagles.
“The importance of friendly games is to learn, see new interesting things and test new players,” he added.
Meanwhile, both sides will clash again at the same Stadion Wiener Neustadt in Vienna on Tuesday.
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