Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali made heroic two saves from spot kicks in Nigeria’s victory over South Africa in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final clash at Stade Bouake on Wednesday evening.
The match finished 1-1 after extra time and the three-time champions defeated South Africa 4-2 on Penalties to book a final clash against Cote d’Ivoire, who defeated Republic of Congo 1-0.
Both regular-time goals also came from penalties with captain William Troost-Ekong scoring after 67 minutes for Nigeria and Teboho Mokoena equalised from a 90th-minute spot-kick.
The Chippa United goalkeeper performance was rewarded with the Man-of-the match award.
Relishing how he felt about the award and his performance during game, the 27-year-old said that it was a dream comes through for him to win man-of-the-match award.
“I really feel so nice. I feel so happy and I’m excited. Even up till now, I still don’t understand how I am feeling, seeing myself winning the man-of-the-match award and still going to the final is like a dream come through,” Nwabali told Nationsport.
However, The former Enyimba FC of Aba goalkeeper credited Super Eagles coaching crew for his heroic saves during the penalty kicks, declining the notion that his understanding of South Africa players contributed to his success.
“To be honest, I won’t say I know the South Africa players more, but credit to my coaches because when it was penalty time, they guided me. So i can’t say that I know the South Africa players,” he added. “I didn’t study the South Africa players for the penalties. I only appreciate my coaches because when it was penalties time, they guided me in the right way. I just took their own decision and I moved on.”
South Africa goalkeeper, Ronwen Williams, created 2023 AFCON record as the first goalkeeper to save four penalty kicks in Bafana Bafana’s shoot-out victory over Cape Verde in the quater-finals clash.
But the Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper couldn’t repeat the feat in the game against Nigeria on Wednesday yet Nwabali still holds him in high esteem, describing him as one of the best goalkeeper in the world.
He said: “Being on the same stage with Williams is a motivation to me, today, makes it the second time two of us will be playing against each other. The first time, I played against him was at Port Elizabeth in South Africa when his team defeated my own team.
“ Today was the second team I played against him. I feel so happy to play against this guy because this guy is one of the best I have ever seen, to be really honest, I am not talking only about Africa but Europe in general.
“ Williams is a very good goalkeeper. When you are in the same stage with him, you need to work very hard to beat him. I feel so happy today to play against him and win the match.”
The victory on Wednesday extended Nigeria’s superiority over South Africa as the Super Eagles have won seven, drawn five and lost two of 14 clashes.
Although, South Africa pushed Nigeria to the limit in the game on Wednesday, Nwabali didn’t see the victory as a luck for his team rather he stressed that his team deserved their victory.
“I won’t say our victory was a luck because everybody in the team played his own role, even the management. You can see a lot of changes in the team, a lot of leadership now in the team. I won’t say it was a luck or anything. I felt like we are a big country and we tried to take some certain things right. We worked really hard for it and we thank God we won,” he said.
Nwabali has won the hearts of many Nigerian football followers ever since his invitation into the team. The former Wikki Tourists of Bauchi save-hands disclosed that he will not allow the recent evasion he is enjoying from Nigerians to enter into his head as he would keep on working on his consistency with the team.
“To me, talking about winning the hearts of Nigerians, this country is a country that knows the football a lot and a lot of heroes have been in this department. I don’t want to say, I am winning the heart of Nigerians but I just want to be consistent whenever I get the call up to get a chance to play for the country,” he explained.
The victory over South Africa made the players went wild in celebration after the game, describing the mood in the camp, Nwabali said: “You too can feel it, everybody is happy. We are happy that we have made it to this stage.”
Nigeria will face the host country Cote d’Ivoire in the final on Sunday, the second meeting between the two sides at the tournament, but Nwabali prefer to focus on the game than talking about it.
“To be honest, I always don’t like talking about the next games but the game that just finished because we still have more days to make corrections and changes for the next game where necessary. It wasn’t the same way we played South Africa that we played against the other countries. We must rest and think about some other things,’ he explained.
Incidentally, it was only few weeks to the AFCON 2023 campaign that coach Jose Peseiro visited Nwabali at his club Chippa United in South Africa which eventually led to his invitation to the national team.
Nwabali described the visit as a turning point in his life: “When the coach informed me that he was coming to South Africa to see me, it was just like a dream to me because coming down to my club to see me, one of the biggest coaches coaching the national team of Nigeria coming down to see me, it was just a motivation to me.
“ He said he was coming to see me and I said to myself that it is going to be an honour to play
Since he took charge as the Super Eagles goalkeeping position, Nwabili has grown in confidence with excellent performance to the admiration of football fans.
“I feel like when a coach believes in you, it will bring lots of confidence in the team. I feel like I can do more in terms of bringing confidence in the team,” he said. “Again, I get more confidence with this group of players because these guys want to win and everybody want to win. I feel more comfortable playing with them.”
Responding to a question whether he has more confidence than other goalkeepers in the team.
“No, the coach chose me to play. Fransis Uzoho is a good guy and he is also good too. To be honest, I don’t know why they always talked about him. This is not the first time we are working together and I can say he is a good goalkeeper,” he responded.
He feels that Uzoho deserves better than bad press he is getting.
“It’s unfair to be honest. He deserves better,” he concluded.
