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An endearing display of courage and quick wit by the Super Sand Eagles against Egypt in the 2018 CAF Beach Soccer Cup of Nations, has earned Nigeria one of Africa’s two tickets to the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Paraguay. Nigeria defeated tournament host, Egypt, 7-6 in a thrilling semi-final encounter to book a spot in the final of the continental beach soccer competition. Sand Eagles top-gun, Abu Azeez, was the star of the game — scoring four goals to take his medal tally to 103 for the team. Emeka Ogbonna scored a brace, while Taiwo Adams scored once for Nigeria in the 13 goal clash.

Nigeria Vs Egypt

Azeez and Adams hit the scoreboard to give Nigeria a two goal lead in the first period. However, Egypt bounced back minutes later to reduce the deficit to one goal at the close of the period. Egypt resumed the second period on a mission to tire out the Nigerian defense, and for a while their plan worked as Costa leveled up the scores 2-2. Ogbonna gave Nigeria the lead once more with his clean-hit that went straight into the top corner, and in a matter of minutes Azeez scored his second goal to give Nigeria a two goal lead. Egypt’s Samir restored hope to the Egyptians when he found the back of the net to bring the scores 4-3.

The third period saw Azeez complete his hat-trick. However, Samir once again reduced the gap for his side, and the goal difference remained unchanged. Egypt got a penalty chance which Mohammed coolly converted to bring the scores 5-5. Azeez went on to restore Nigeria’s lead with his fourth goal of the counter, but once again Mohammed was there to level things up. In the extra time, the Sand Eagles did not give the Egyptians much room to usurp control of the game as Ogbonna took advantage of a slip-up in Egypt’s defense line to score Nigeria’s seventh goal, ending the game at 7-6. Featured Image Source: Daily Advent