By

Eniola Olatunji 

Balloon d'Or nominee, Ademola Lookman on Saturday at the God'swill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, Nigeria chained the Cheetahs of Benin Republic with a brace in a 3-0 sweet revenge routing.

Lookman who had predicted 3-0 scoreline got Nigeria's first goal selling dummies to five defenders of Benin including Goalkeeper, Marcel Dandjinou in the 45+3rd minute of play.

Victor Osimhen who came in for Victor Boniface got a thorough pass from midfield maestro, Ndifreke Ndidi and stylishly scored the 2nd goal in the 78th minute.

Wing wizard, Simon Moses pulled a nice one to Ademola to make his brace in the 83rd minute and Nigeria was instructed by stand in coach Augustine Eguavon to 'park the train' meaning block Nigeria's box 18 in a 'Ba shiga' format.

Benin played very well in the first half frustrating Nigeria's forays with their quick falk back to the defence with their collapsible 4-1-4-1 style against Nigeria's conventional 3-4-3 system of play.

Nigeria had 13-4 shots at goal; 5-3 shots on target; stringed 475-373 passes in good ball control of 57-43% possession; had 15-7 foul calls with 2-1 yellow cards as the Egyptian Ref signalled 4-1 offside calls and Nigeria is not yet at the eldorado in set pieces wasting 7-2 corner kicks advantage.

Benin Republic paraded about four Nigerians in J. Olaitan; Femi Dosu; T. Ayegun and A. Moumini who once played in Lagos all trying to put the Super Eagles in check.

Both countries met 10 times since 2004; Nigeria won 8 times with 16 goals and Benin won 2 times scoring 5 goals.

The Uyo victory did not meet or erase Nigeria's biggest win over the then Squirrels of Benin which was 4-0 on 9th April 2010 in an international friendly match.

Benin won 1-0 in a Nations cup on 13th August 2017 at home; on the 19th August 2017 Nigeria Shots the Squirrels 2-0; Nigeria won a WAFU encounter by a lone goal on 21st September 2017; beat Benin 2-1 in AFCON match on 13th  November 2019; beat Benin again by a lone goal in AFCON on 27th March 2021 before Nigeria's former coach Rohr helped Benin hook Nigeria 2-1in a world cup qualifier on 10th June 2024 in Abidjan.

Nigeria has two outstanding matches against Benin Republic on 11th November 2024 in Nations cup and a world cup qualifier on 13th October 2025.

Here are results of AFCON Qualifier matches played today. Cameroon 1 Namibia 1; Mauritania 0 Botswana 0; Ivory coast 2 Zambia 0; Morocco 4 Gabon 1 and Mali 1 Mozambique 1.