The star Premier League attacker, who we believed would light up this year’s Africa Cup of Nations with punishment delivered by a left foot wand, inevitably came good. Not now, Mohamed Salah; Kelechi Iheanacho is talking and he’s got plenty to say. A Nigerian striker crisis? Think again.
The early days of this tournament have been a little soporific, not helped by the circumspection of several major nations – Senegal, Algeria, Ghana – and the vision of empty stands in vast stadia in Cameroon’s two biggest cities.
This was a little different. The Roumdé Adjia Stadium in Garoua holds 30,000 people and was, mercifully, at least half full. Garoua is easily the most remote host city in this tournament, and the local population joined ranks of Nigerians and Egyptians. The buzz of the vuvuzela-type instruments provided a World Cup 2010 soundtrack.
The football was distinct too. Nigeria came into this tournament in chaotic circumstances and we wondered whether they would embrace that chaos or ignore it – the answer appears to be the former. For the first time at Afcon 2021, a nation played front-foot, expansive football at pace and were suitably rewarded.
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For all those strikers who did withdraw from Augustine Eguavoen’s squad, it ironically left the starting XI with better balance. Iheanacho played in a front two alongside former Liverpool youngster Taiwo Awoniyi with Moses Simon and Samuel Chukwueze as wingers. Simon produced the best individual performance of the nascent days of this competition, thriving after the early enforced substitution of Akram Tawfik. It was his cross that was half cleared, allowing Joe Aribo to head down to Iheanacho. His spin and finish, all in one movement, was completed before any Egyptian could react.
That one goal was enough is no surprise. Seven of the first eight matches in this tournament have either finished 0-0 or 1-0. In the context of Cameroon 2021, that probably reflects the heat and the lack of preparation time pre-tournament persuading coaches to be risk-averse, particularly with players missing through Covid.
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But this goes beyond Cameroon and the move to 24 teams. Over the last seven editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, the number of goals per game have decreased from tournament to tournament from a high of 3.09 goals per game in 2008 to 1.96 in 2019. The stereotype of Afcon is as a magical tournament in which freedom of expression is paramount. The reality has been markedly different.
If Simon was the game’s star, Nigeria established their dominance in central midfield. The combination of Aribo and Wilfred Ndidi controlled the tempo and, ultimately, the course of the match. Aribo has a guile and fluidity of movement with the ball at his feet that belies an imposing frame, a sporty SUV of a central midfielder. Kids and grown-ups in Nigeria presumably love him so.
Egypt, for their part, were utterly abject. Carlos Queiroz’s side spent the first half launching the ball long to an isolated Salah, who had 14 touches before the break. Quite what Queiroz believed was the likely result of that strategy is unclear, but Salah’s first shot came after 66 minutes and even that was pulled up for an offside. Egypt looked leggy in midfield, overrun in defence and barely had an attack.
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This was not quite the night that Afcon 2021 came alive. We are still waiting for two teams to attack in turn and it may well take jeopardy to be added as an ingredient for that recipe to form. It provides a warning before Qatar 2022 that high temperatures, higher humidity, lack of preparation time and midseason tournament provokes football played at two-thirds speed until higher intensity is demanded.
But we do have our first shock and our first shocker, given Egypt’s lamentable production. If Nigeria surprised Queiroz, that ageing nomad of international football, with their ambition, we must hope that it serves as a lesson to every other team in the competition. Kelechi Iheanacho has seen most of his striking partners disappear over the last three weeks. It doesn’t seem to have knocked him off stride.
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