Ecuador v Nigeria : Three key areas for the Super Eagles to improve on before 2023 AFCONQ

The Super Eagles, under the guidance of new manager José Peseiro, took on the Mexican Senior National team in an international friendly last week.

With a 2-1 victory after Jimenez's strike and William Troost-Ekong's own goal, Mexico maintained their bragging rights over Nigeria, albeit Cyriel Dessers momentarily halved the deficit on his full debut.

The Super Eagles then took on the Ecuador national team at the Red Bull Arena, New Jersey on Friday morning as they stepped up their preparations for the AFCON qualifiers.

The game was lost by a slim 1-0 scoreline as Estupinan's header gifted El Tricolor a victory.

It was an encouraging display from the Super Eagles but allnigeriasoccer.com will be highlighting three areas where Peseiro and his boys will need to improve drastically before the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches commence.

Finishing

The Super Eagles' biggest flaw against Mexico and Ecuador was their inability to take advantage of the numerous golden opportunities that they created throughout both games.

The Super Eagles must be clinical and bury the chances they are presented before it comes back to bite them in important matches.

Deliveries from wide areas

Among the players, only Calvin Bassey can be trusted to deliver great out to in balls from the wide areas.

International football is slightly different as teams rarely allow opponents to cut them open through the middle, so the forward players must be able to take advantage of the spaces available on the flanks to deliver good balls.

 
For the team's future success, the wingers must learn to deliver from wide areas when they find it difficult to play through the middle.

Penetration

While Nigeria dominated Ecuador through the middle in the second half, only Alex Iwobi was able to find penetrative passes that could hurt the opposition.

It should be noted that he played deeper than usual which is a big message to the others.

They all need to improve on their penetrative passes including Joe Aribo.

Sofoluwe Mayowa

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