Ighalo was the man of the match, as the Chinese Super League striker scored a hat-trick to help Nigeria beat Libya 4-0 in the group E AFCON 2019 qualifiers played a few hours ago.
Ighalo scored as early as in the 4th minutes, as the former Watford of forward scored from the spot to put Nigeria ahead, replicating his goalscoring form in China to the National team.
He scored two more to add to the first, as his hat-trick makes him the 10th player to have ever scored a hat-trick for the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
Although it was an emphatic win, Nigeria still maintains their second position in the group, with six points from three games, while South Africa tops the group E with seven points, after they also thrashed Seychelles at home.
GOALS:
Both Odion Ighalo who picked up his first international hat-trick and Samuel Kalu scored to give Nigeria the needed win to put pressure on the group leaders South Africa.
The qualifying games continue as Nigeria will play a return leg away to Libya while South Africa travels to Seychelles for their own return leg, as the fight to see who tops the group at the end of the qualifiers thickens between South Africa and Nigeria. See the Group E results for today:
Nigeria 4-0 Libya
South Africa 6-0 Seychelles
Super Eagles Coach will be looking to replicate the same victory when they go for the return leg in Libya, as he is gradually beginning to have his own team that are fast adapting to his own style of football.