Nigeria 4-1 Burkina Faso: Brown Ideye brace shoots down Stallions

The Super Eagles proved that their victory over Burkina Faso in the Africa Cup of Nations played earlier this year was no fluke as they silenced the Stallions 4-1 in an international friendly played at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium on Tuesday.

A first half brace from Brown Ideye plus second half goals from Shola Ameobi and Emmanuel Emenike were all the reigning African champions needed to send their boastful west African neigbours back home empty-handed.

Despite fielding just four players from the team that silenced Malawi 2-0 on Saturday, the Super Eagles ran riot against their Burkina Faso counterpart in a capacity filled Ahmadu Bello Stadium.
Burkina Faso came into this encounter with ambition of avenging their painful lose in South Africa and also to record their first win ever over the Super Eagles but that did not see the light of the day as they were completely outplayed by Stephen Keshi’s men who are still basking in the euphoria of qualifying for the Brazil 2014 Fifa World Cup play-offs.
The game which saw Newcastle forward, Shola Ameobi get his first start in the green and white jersey was only 13 minutes old before Brown Ideye capitalised on poor defending by the Stallions to put Nigeria ahead.
The Eagles could have gone two goals up three minutes later but Obinna Nsofor could not beat the goalie after the Burkinabe defence failed to deal with a cross.
Nigeria dominated all departments of the match but could have conceded an equaliser in the 32^nd minute but there was no one to connect to Yameogo’s effort after the Eagles were caught unawares by the visitors. Ideye got his second of the evening when he beat goalkeeper Laré Mohamed Diarra following a great foot work from John Ogu who displaced three defenders before a sending a sublime pass to the Dynamo Kiev man for a cool finish.
On resumption of the second half, Keshi’s men continued to push forward for more goals and soon got the result when impressive Shola Ameobi got his first international goal and the third of the game thanks to Ideye and Nsofor who combined effectively to feed the Newcastle attacker who beat a helpless Diarra.
At this point, the Super Eagles looked to be coasting home to victory with their impressive soccer artistry. Ten minutes after his introduction in the game, 63^rd minutes to be precise, Emmanuel Emenike made presence count by adding the fourth with drive similar to Ameobi’s strike with the assist coming from Lazio man, Ogenyi Onazi.
The Stallions however got a consolation through Simpore in the 78^th minute. He had a simple tap in at the back of the post following a cross from the left which beat the Super Eagles defenders.