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Following an error by Francis Uzoho in Nigeria’s 2-1 loss to Algeria in an international friendly at the Miloud Hadefi Olympic Complex, Oran on Tuesday, a host of fans took to social media to aim dig at the goalkeeper, while also urging the trainers to begin a hunt for new shot-stoppers.
The Eagles went into the game seeking to end the Foxes’ five-year dominance – the North Africans having emerged winners in their last three meetings, scoring six goals and conceding once since a 3-1 loss to the Eagles in November 2016 in Uyo – but were hard done by poor goalkeeping by Uzoho, which earned the hosts the win.
The 23-year-old Omonia keeper misjudged a Youcef Atal 40-yard shot, which easily sailed into the net with Uzoho stupefied.
The blunder by the former Deportivo La Coruna man is amongst many that fans have had to contend with in recent times.
At the delayed 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, a Youssef Msakni long-range shot easily beat Maduka Okoye to help the COVID-hit Tunisian side qualify for the quarter-final of the tournament at the expense of Nigeria, who had won all their group matches to qualify for the round of 16.
The Watford keeper immediately became a laughing stock on social media, forcing him to shun subsequent invitations to the national team.
Another goalkeeping error cost Nigeria a place at the Qatar 2022 World Cup after they played a 1-1 draw with Ghana at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja, having played a goalless draw in the first leg in Ghana.
Again, Uzoho was the culprit as he allowed a harmless-looking shot from Thomas Partey to beat him.
Prior to Tuesday’s game, fans were again left dazed as they watched Okoye fumble a back pass to gift a home-based Algerian side a goal, as the game ended 2-2.
With the latest blunder from Uzoho, fans called on the Eagles technical crew to begin searching for new goalkeepers.
A Twitter user with the name Remmy wrote, “We practically played that game against Algeria without a goalkeeper, which is fair enough going by the result of the game. The Eagles trainers must get us new goalkeepers because at the moment we don’t have any.”
Another user Livelife said,“Goalkeeper error again, we need to move on from Uzoho and that fine boy fraud.”
Adedamola added, “How that second goal did go in? Nigeria need to do better in the goal-keeping department.”
“The same goalkeeper error that cost us the World Cup. It is high time the Eagles begin to look for a new set of goalkeepers,” Laja tweeted.
Paul Blackknight wrote, “Nigeria don’t have goalkeeper at all and I think its best we start training or look for new ones.”
A female fan, Chichi wrote, “I love seeing Okoye on the pitch but not for his goalkeeping skill. The truth is this team needs to get new goalkeepers because the ones I have been seeing are no good quality at all.”