The Super Eagles of Nigeria whitewashed Libya 4-0 in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium on Saturday, courtesy of Odion Ighalo’s hat-trick and Samuel Kalu’s beautiful finish.
The Nigerian side went ahead just two minutes into the match as Libyan goalkeeper Mohamed Abdaula brought down Ighalo who was on a goal-bound move and referee Jean-Jacques Ndala pointing to the spot.
Ighalo dusted himself up to convert the penalty kick which gave the Super Eagles the platform to play freely.
Libya almost got the equalizer in the 12th minute after Mohamed Abdussalam’s header was brilliantly saved by Francis Uzoho.
But there were no more goals in the first half as the Libyan side hold the rampaging Super Eagles off to make the scoreline respectable going into the interval.
After an initial loads of attacks from the visitors in the early minutes of the second half, the Super Eagles rediscovered their mojo and the harvest of goals continued.
In the 58th minute, Ighalo collected a through pass from Alex Iwobi to round off Abdaula for his second of the evening.
Ighalo completed the second-half carnage with a fine simple goal after Ahmed Eltarbi had goofed Ahmed Musa’s cross.
Having enjoyed watching his team-mates run up the score, Samuel Kalu also found the back of the thanks to an assist from Henry Onyekuru.
After this encounter, the Super Eagles will travel to meet the Knights of Libya for the return leg on Monday.
