TheCable

The Super Eagles of Nigeria were defeated 2-0 by Mali in a friendly game in Morocco.

Goals from El Bilal Toure and Kamory Doumbia condemned the Eagles to a disappointing loss at the Grand Stade de Marrakech on Monday evening.

George Finidi took charge of the Eagles for the second time as an interim head coach as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) continued the search for Jose Peseiro’s permanent replacement.

The performance was starkly different from the brilliant display that led to victory against the Black Stars of Ghana on March 22.

The Malians scored the game’s first goal in the 14th minute after Chidozie Awaziem was pressured while on the ball in the Nigerian defence. His marker harassed him into a hurried pass across the goal area, and the ball found Toure, who controlled sharply before finishing beyond Stanley Nwabali.

The Eagles continued to struggle, and another unfortunate layer was added when Simon Moses colluded with Mamadou Samassa, the Malian goalkeeper.

The Nigerian winger came off worse from the incident and had to be wheeled out of the game on a stretcher.

Simon’s replacement was Cyriel Dessers, who squandered a couple of chances to pull Nigeria level.

The Malians made no such mistake when they put the match beyond Nigeria in the 85th minute. Doumbia raced through the Eagles’ defence before finishing the ball into the roof of Nwabali’s net.

Nigeria’s next set of games will be the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and Benin Republic in June.