Nigeria vs Poland: 5 things we learnt from Super Eagles’ victory

Nigeria defeated Poland 1-0 in an international friendly played at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw on Friday night.

Chelsea wingback, Victor Moses, scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot in the 61st minute.

The Super Eagles will now take on Serbia in four days’ time – their second friendly in this international window.

Here are the five things we learnt from the Poland match

1. Uzoho is not the answer: The 19-year-old who plays his football for Deportivo La Coruna in Spain, looked shaky at times and his positioning was questionable. Uzoho was also lucky to finish the game with a clean sheet, as a perfectly correct goal was chalked off by the officials. Although he showed promise with a couple of decent saves, Gernot Rohr has to surely look at more experienced stoppers heading for the World Cup.

2. Unlucky Poles: Apart from the wrongfully disallowed goal, Poland should have at least been two goals up in the first half alone. However, a combination of luck and poor finishing, saw them not score at all in the entire 90 minutes. Robert Lewandowski was dangerous at times, but failed to find the back of the net.

3. Fullbacks’ off day: Both Shehu Abdullahi and Brian Idowu endured an average evening against the Poles. Perhaps it was the formation Rohr employed or the they could not cope with the powerful surges down their wings. On another day, the Eagles would have conceded because of their errors.

4. Mikel Obi missed: One man whose presence was clearly missed in Wracrow was John Obi Mikel. Not only for in his inspirational leadership on and off the pitch, but the calm passing he brings in midfield. The Eagles were out of sorts and barely strung together five passes at any time. Thankfully, he will be back for the Serbia match.

5. 4-4-1-1 won’t work: Rohr’s starting formation for the game was 4-4-1-1. The system appeared to inhibit his best players and left the team at the mercy of the rampaging hosts. The German however, tweaked it in the second half to a 4-3-3 variant. It was only then his team got a foothold in the encounter.