Nigeria defeated Luxembourg 3-1 to give caretaker coach Salisu Yusuf two wins in as many games and enhance his chances of clinching the country’s top post soon.
It was mission accomplished for Yusuf after he was tasked to win both friendlies against Mali and Luxembourg.
Brown Ideye opened scoring in the 36th minute following a well-worked move.
Umar Aminu went past two defenders before he passed to skipper Ogenyi Onazi, whose ferocious effort was partly saved by the goalkeeper and from the rebound Ideye tucked away.
It was Ideye’s first goal in three years and justified he being considered ahead of Watford striker Odion Ighalo.
Kelechi Iheanacho scored his second goal in as many games when he capitalized on a defensive error after 69 minutes.
The home team pulled a goal back on 87 minutes through Vincent Thill after a defensive error.
Ighalo profited from a dashing solo run by man of the match Iheanacho in stoppage time to make it 3-1 in favour of Nigeria.
In the 80th minute, Ighalo would have made it 3-0, but the goalkeeper blocked his shot in a one-on-one situation.
His effort minutes later was disallowed by the referee on account of an infringement.
Eagles positional play was good and Aminu, Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi both had chances early on to put Nigeria on the scoreboard.
Nigeria dominated the proceedings as expected with Luxembourg hardly troubling their goal and by full time, the Eagles enjoyed 69% of the ball possession.
Early in the second half, Nigeria made two attacking changes – Moses Simon in for Aminu and Babatunde Michael for Iwobi – as they tried to step up the search for more goals.