By Daily Sports on January 16, 2020

The Edo State football team currently preparing for the National Sports Festival to be hosted in the state got a reality check on Wednesday morning when they were walloped 3-0 by Nigeria National League (NNL) side Bendel Insurance in a friendly match played at the University of Benin sports complex in Ugbowo.

The game had as its major purpose an avenue to see how far the Edo festival football team have come. On the strength of their display against Insurance, it was clear that there is a lot of work for the Coach Aghaowa-led technical bench to do to make the team a reliable one for the sports festival if the goal of hosting to win the football event is to be realised.

Insurance started the game in a no nonsense fashion, closing down the technically gifted Edo State team midfield trio of Eseosa, Jeremiah Salami and Solomon Osaghae with aggression.

It was the defence of the Edo State team that really struggled most, though, as they showed little coordination between themselves and made several tactical and individual errors that allowed Insurance to score all three goals in the first half.

Insurance got their first goal when a routinely cleared ball by the NNL team was not dealt well with by the Edo State team left back who missed his kick and saw the ball roll under his legs. Friday Kabiru was on hand to tap in the cross from the edge of the box.

Striker Ojo then put Insurance two goals up when he charged at a dilly-dallying Edo state team central defence, outmuscling the two centre backs and rounding up the goalkeeper before rolling the ball in the net.

Kabiru secured his brace with a beauty of a strike just before half time, showing good hold up play outside the box, shaking off his marker and then shooting with venom to give the Edo state ’keeper no chance.

The Edo State team came out for the second half with an entirely new 11 who performed marginally better as Insurance took their feet off the pedal to leave the scoreline at 3-0.

The general consensus after the game was that the Edo team was simply not ready yet and the coaches would have to work on a particular formation and then inject more quality players to improve the team that is seeking to host and win the football event of the National Sports Festival that comes up in a few months.

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 16, 2020

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