Mexico’s quality too much for the Home-based Super Eagles

The inexperienced Nigerian team gave their all in the international friendly clash, but they could not cope with El Tri’s quality 

Nigeria’s home-based players had a game to forget following a 4-0 loss to Mexico in the friendly encounter between the two nations at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sunday morning.

The Super Eagles starting lineup comprised mainly players from the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) except for Ibrahim Sunusi, who plays for CF Montreal.

However, the gap in quality between the two sides showed as Mexico dominated from start to finish to claim a 4-0 win.

The Super Eagles defence could not find answers to Mexico’s wave of attack while they were also poor going forward.

Mexico showed their intent right from the start as they took the lead inside the opening two minutes through Hector Herrera, who headed home from a corner kick.

Gerardo Martino’s side doubled their lead two minutes later through Rogelio Funes Mori, slotting home from close range after he was set up by Hirving Lozano.

It looked like it would be a whitewash after Mexico scored two inside four minutes, but it stayed at 2-0 at half-time.

The Super Eagles under the watchful eyes of Gernot Rohr, who handed the coaching duties to Paul Aigbogun, failed to muster a single shot on target in the opening half.

Despite their resistance in the last 40 minutes of the first half, it only took Mexican six minutes after the break to make it 3-0.

Herrera capitalised on a defensive error from Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali to slot home for his second.

Substitute Jonathan dos Santos compounded Nigeria’s woes as he fired in a fourth 13 minutes from time to cap off a dominant performance for the Gold Cup champions.