TheCable

CSKA Moscow striker, Ahmed Musa, scored either side of debutant Aaron Samuel’s goal to hand the Super Eagles of Nigeria a hard-fought 3-1 victory over the Falcons of Sudan.

In the match played at the Abuja national stadium, Stephen Keshi’s Eagles started out in energetic fashion, but found clear-cut chances hard to come by.

The hosts, though, would find the back of the net only two minutes into the second half, when Mikel Obi brilliantly set up Ahmed Musa, whose deft touch took the ball past two defenders, allowing him to coolly place the ball beyond Sudan goalkeeper, El-Hadi

It took Sudan just seven minutes to fire an equaliser, El-Gadir setting up teammate Sallah from the flanks to tap into a near-empty net.

As the home side pressed desperately for a winner, Emmanuel Emenike lit up the Abuja stadium with a ferociously-struck free kick that drew a superb safe from El Hadi.

On 65 minutes, Samuel acrobatically volleyed into the net after El-Hadi and a defender fumbled an Emenike cross.

Like Musa, the Guangzhou R&F striker race to Keshi for a passionate embrace.

Musa then re-enacted his World Cup form, racing on to win back a ball he earlier lost, before wrong-footing a defender and tucking the ball beyond El-Hadi into the net, to earn Nigeria its first win since the 2014 FIFA World Cup and resuscitate a faltering AFCON 2015 qualification campaign.