Eguavoen explains why Sadiq started vs Guinea-Bissau despite not finding his feet first two games

Augustine Eguavoen has explained why he handed a starting debut to Umar Sadiq in his side's 2-0 win over Guinea-Bissau in their last group game of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

The Super Eagles caretaker coach openly criticized Sadiq for his shoddy performance off the bench against Egypt and Sudan but decided to see how he would perform if named in the starting lineup.

Until the 56th minute, nothing changed as Sadiq looked like a player lacking confidence but managed to finish off a pass from Kelechi Iheanacho shortly before he was replaced.

Eguavoen highlighted that the 2016 Olympics bronze medalist came into the AFCON tournament with a good record having played for the likes of AS Roma and was banging in goals for Almeria.

Quizzed on how he changed the mindset of Sadiq,  Eguavoen said at Wednesday night's post-match press conference : "Umar Sadiq I kept talking to him because he's a player who has played for Roma, now he's in Spain scoring goals and the first two games he came in he couldn't really find his feet for whatever reason because he's just coming into a big tournament, maybe it was too big.

"However, I think he's performed well and we just wanted to start him today to see how he'll react not to come in and I think he did very well."

Six different players have now scored for Nigeria at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, the others being Kelechi Iheanacho, Samuel Chukwueze, Moses Simon, Taiwo Awoniyi and William Troost-Ekong.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel

Photo Credit : cafonline.com