Sierra Leone Have Not Lost At Home In 6 Years. Can The Eagles End That Unbeaten Run Today? (See All-time Head-to-head Results)

Sierra Leone have not lost at home in 6 years. Can the Eagles end that unbeaten run today? (See all-time head-to-head results)

By Sulaiman Alao

The Super Eagles of Nigeria today face a difficult but not impossible task of beating Sierra Leone in the second leg of their 2022 AFCON qualifier at the Siaka Stevens Stadium n Freetown which will end a five-year unbeaten run of the Leone Stars.

The Leone Stars shocked the Eagles after coming from a four goal deficit to draw 4-4 in the first leg played at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City last Friday and they will be buoyed to go all out for a win against Nigeria in Freetown.

The Eagles will be looking emulate the feat of April, 1961 and June, 2008 which were the two occasions when Nigeria recorded a 4-2 and 1-0 away wins against Sierra Leone in a friendly and World Cup qualifier respectively.

However, Nigeria had lost twice on the road against Sierra Leone recording a 2-0 loss in an AFCON qualifier in July, 1987 followed by a 1-0 loss in a World Cup qualifier in April, 2001.

The Eagles have also recorded three away draws against Sierra Leone – 0-0 in a World Cup qualifier in October, 1976 followed by 1-1 in AFCON qualifier in February 1977 and 0-0 in a friendly in October, 1979.

Overall past encounters between Nigeria and Sierra Leone currently stands at 15 with Nigeria recording 9 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses.

The last time Sierra Leone lost at home was the 1-5 loss against Cote d’Ivoire November, 2014 in an AFCON qualifier. Since that loss, the Leone Stars had gone unbeaten at home in seven outings against Cote d’Ivoire (0-0 in 2015); Chad (2-0 in 2015); Gabon (1-0 in 2016); Sudan (1-0 in 2016); Senegal (1-1 in 2017), Liberia (1-0 in 2019) and Lesotho (1-1 in 2019).

NIGERIA VS SIERRA LEONE HEAD-TO-HEAD

Games won: 9

Games drawn: 4

Games lost: 2

Date Match Result Score Competition

22 Apr 1961 Sierra Leone 2-4 Nigeria International Friendly

27 Jan 1968 Nigeria 4-1 Sierra Leone International Friendly

16 Oct 1976 Sierra Leone 0-0 Nigeria World Cup Qualifier

30 Oct 1976 Nigeria 6-2 Sierra Leone World Cup Qualifier

17 Feb 1977 Sierra Leone 1-1 Nigeria Africa Cup of Nations

13 Mar 1977 Nigeria 2-0 Sierra Leone Africa Cup of Nations

27 Oct 1979 Sierra Leone 0-0 Nigeria International Friendly