Nigeria's Super Eagle cruised past their Algerian opponent, the Fennecs, 3-1 in one of Saturday's 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifying matches in Africa.
It was a Chelsea show for the Nigerians as winger Victor Moses scored twice and John Mikel Obi got among the goals as well while the Algerians got their solitary strike from Nabil Bentaleb.
Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr turned to Chippa United stopper Daniel Akpeyi in the absence of injured Karl Ikeme, while Oghenekaro Etebo, Moses and Leon Balogun got their first games under the Franco-German.
The Algerians named a strong start list which included Riyad Mahrez, Islam Slimani, Carl Medjani and Bentaleb in the absence of El Arabi Soudani and other top players.
Seven minutes into the game, Moses did well to dink past his marker and then cut inside another Algerian but just could not apply the appropriate finish by dragging his effort off target. However, the Chelsea man made no mistake 18 minutes later when he gave Nigerians the lead through an individual piece of play laced with a little bit of good fortune.
Algerians came closest to drawing level on 37 minutes but Bentaleb scooped the ball over the post with Nigeria's defence in sixes and sevens. Slimani came close to scoring too but Akpeyi was alert in Nigeria's goal.
On the strike of halftime, Mikel doubled Nigeria's lead after Algeria's back four played the Chelsea midfielder onside to score past Rais M'bolhi. It was a different performance from the Algerians in the business end of the game however, as they clawed themselves back by pegging the Super Eagles in their half.
On 67 minutes, Bentaleb fired in a stunner to pull one back for Algeria. Mahrez also came to life as Brahimi could only watch as his attempt went off target on 74 minutes.
It was Moses that turned up at the death to kill off any kind of fightback from the Algerians by picking his spot from Ahmed Musa's cross to give Nigeria a 3-1 win.
Nigeria now have six points, four more than second-placed Cameroun while Zambia and Algeria have a point each
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