By Ikolaba Olanrewaju
Victor Osimhen scored four goals as Nigeria completed a record 10-0 thrashing of Sao Tome & Principe in their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations Group A qualifier in neutral Agadir on Monday, while World Cup-bound Morocco labored to a 2-0 win over Liberia.
Nigeria, who surprisingly missed out on a place at this year's World Cup in Qatar, completed their biggest international victory as Terem Moffi (two), Moses Simon, Peter Etebo, Ademola Lookman, and Emmanuel Dennis also got on the scoresheet.
However, the defeat is not the heaviest in Sao Tome's history, however -- there was an 11-0 loss to Congo in 1976.
The victory means Nigeria has a maximum haul of six points from their opening two games as they seek to reach the continental finals in Ivory Coast next June.
That is two points ahead of Guinea-Bissau, who allowed Sierra Leone to rally from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw in a game played in Conakry.
Two goals from Jorginho put Guinea-Bissau on their way to what looked like a comfortable three points.
But when Guinea's left-back Sana Gomes received a red card after 56 minutes the momentum turned in the favour of the hosts as Augustus Kargbo and Musa Kamara pulled the Leone Stars level.
Morocco was poor in the opening half of their Group K victory over Liberia, which was played in Casablanca despite it being a 'home' fixture for the West African side.
Like Sao Tome and Sierra Leone, Liberia has been barred from playing at home by the Confederation of African Football due to their stadiums not being up to the required standard.
Morocco therefore gleefully agreed to pay the costs of staging the fixture but made heavy weather of their win.
After a goalless opening period with few chances, they eventually took the lead via a penalty from Faycal Fajr and doubled their advantage two minutes later as Youssef En Nesyri scored his second goal in as many games.
Morocco leads the three-team pool with six points, while Liberia and South Africa meet in a potentially decisive home and away fixtures in September.
"Firstly, I will say congratulations to the whole team and, of course, big kudos to the coach," Osimhen said. "All the instructions he gave to us, I believe we carried out about 80 or 90% of them. Of course, I'm happy to get four goals, and I'm happy for my other teammates who got their goals as well. The likes of Lookman, Murphy, and Dennis got their first goals as well.
"There is solidarity in the team, this is what the coach has taught us and I believe that as a group we have the quality to continue to build on this momentum."
It would be easy to dismiss the result by pointing to their opponents, who are ranked 183rd in the world and 50th in Africa compared to Nigeria (30 in the world, third-best in Africa). But over two legs against Seychelles ranked 186th at the time, the Super Eagles only managed to score six goals and concede one. They also lost to the Central African Republic, at home.
For further context, Ghana and South Africa only beat the same side by an aggregate of 4-1 and 6-2 over two legs respectively in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying series. South Africa hosted both legs of the qualifier at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peseiro was naturally pleased with the result, but he admitted that more work needed to be done.
"About the 10-0 win? Yes, it's good," he said. "It is better for us [to get] three points, which is more important to us. Of course, I want to improve our organization on the field because we didn't train too much with them. We want to introduce our ideas -- this match was good because they tried to follow our organization, our style, and our idea. I am also happy because the guys who entered during the match did as well as those players who started."
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