Nigerians were at the edge of their seats watching their darling team dazzle yesterday, but their expectations turned sour at the end as France delivered a bitter defeat to the Super Eagles.
The omens are now good for the French to go all the way to the Maracana on July 13th as their recent World Cup record reads ‘national disgrace, final, national disgrace, final, national disgrace…’
The free-flowing football which saw Honduras and Switzerland dispatched for a total of eight goals in their first two matches may have deserted France, but they did enough. Nigeria rarely took advantage of bossing possession for the opening hour and Enyeama, who makes his living in France with Lille, started the match a hero and ended up as the villain of the piece.
If France had been in any way complacent, they were soon shaken out of it by an early spell of shadow chasing, in which they could barely get hold of the ball. Nigeria squandered a couple of free-kick opportunities around but at 19 minutes; they thought they had taken the lead.
Ahmed Musa, who had tormented Argentina on his previous outing crossed low from the left,
Emmanuel Emenike made an angled run and poked home – only for a fag-paper offside decision to go against him. This scare jolted Les Bleus and they decided to join in – Paul Pogba bursting forward, exchanging passes with Mathieu Valbuena, detonated a volley which Vincent Enyeama pushed away.
Olivier Giroud, who was struggling badly to have any impact, made some sort of impression on the face of Mikel – an elbow, which was not full- blooded, but certainly naughty.
The Super Eagles were vastly superior in their passing yet wasteful at set-pieces – and they might have been punished when Mathieu Debuchy wildly blazed a wide shot after Blaise Matuidi and Valbuena combined to tee him up.
Emenike let fly from the corner of the penalty area, forcing Hugo Lloris to beat away, just before half-time but the overall tempo was sluggish.
The Super Eagles midfield man Ogenyi Onazi performed the unusual trick of being carted off on a stretcher twice in the same match – recovering from an early knock, but kyboshed by a nasty late challenge from Matuidi.
Peter Odemwingie cut in from the right and asked a sprawling save of Lloris, but when Didier Deschamps hooked the lumbering Giroud and replaced him with Antoine Griezmann, moving Karim Benzema to the centre, the change injected some much-needed energy.
Griezmann was soon involved in a tasty one-two with Benzema, the Real Madrid striker’s shot was saved by the legs of Enyeama, then cannoned back off him only for Victor Moses to clear off the line. It was the first time the French had performed any real surgery on the Nigerian defence and caused a true momentum swing.
Benzema had another effort hacked off the line and when Nigeria failed to properly clear. Yohan Cabaye crashed a shot off the crossbar from 20 yards.
Valbuena then swung on a free-kick and Benzema’s header was tipped over by Enyeama. But from the resulting corner, came the keeper’s moment of catastrophe as he opted to come for Valbuena’s dead-ball kick but ended up flapping amid a forest of players, leaving Pogba with a simple header into an unguarded net.
In injury-time, France took a short corner, Valbuena centred and Yobo deflected into his own net, under pressure from Yobo with Enyeama again all at sea.
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This article was first published on 1st July 2014
obimartins
Martins Okafor is a Sports Writer for Connect Nigeria. He has been a sport buff for years, following stories and development in leagues and international competitions. His interest led him to writing stories – reporting on sporting events. He has superior interest in soccer, but knows much about other sports. He plans to have a blog and to advance in sport journalism. You can email him at: obimartins85 [at] gmail.com
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Nigerians were at the edge of their seats watching their darling team dazzle yesterday, but their expectations turned sour at the end as France delivered a bitter defeat to the Super Eagles.
The omens are now good for the French to go all the way to the Maracana on July 13th as their recent World Cup record reads ‘national disgrace, final, national disgrace, final, national disgrace…’
The free-flowing football which saw Honduras and Switzerland dispatched for a total of eight goals in their first two matches may have deserted France, but they did enough. Nigeria rarely took advantage of bossing possession for the opening hour and Enyeama, who makes his living in France with Lille, started the match a hero and ended up as the villain of the piece.
If France had been in any way complacent, they were soon shaken out of it by an early spell of shadow chasing, in which they could barely get hold of the ball. Nigeria squandered a couple of free-kick opportunities around but at 19 minutes; they thought they had taken the lead.
Ahmed Musa, who had tormented Argentina on his previous outing crossed low from the left,
Emmanuel Emenike made an angled run and poked home – only for a fag-paper offside decision to go against him. This scare jolted Les Bleus and they decided to join in – Paul Pogba bursting forward, exchanging passes with Mathieu Valbuena, detonated a volley which Vincent Enyeama pushed away.
Olivier Giroud, who was struggling badly to have any impact, made some sort of impression on the face of Mikel – an elbow, which was not full- blooded, but certainly naughty.
The Super Eagles were vastly superior in their passing yet wasteful at set-pieces – and they might have been punished when Mathieu Debuchy wildly blazed a wide shot after Blaise Matuidi and Valbuena combined to tee him up.
Emenike let fly from the corner of the penalty area, forcing Hugo Lloris to beat away, just before half-time but the overall tempo was sluggish.
The Super Eagles midfield man Ogenyi Onazi performed the unusual trick of being carted off on a stretcher twice in the same match – recovering from an early knock, but kyboshed by a nasty late challenge from Matuidi.
Peter Odemwingie cut in from the right and asked a sprawling save of Lloris, but when Didier Deschamps hooked the lumbering Giroud and replaced him with Antoine Griezmann, moving Karim Benzema to the centre, the change injected some much-needed energy.
Griezmann was soon involved in a tasty one-two with Benzema, the Real Madrid striker’s shot was saved by the legs of Enyeama, then cannoned back off him only for Victor Moses to clear off the line. It was the first time the French had performed any real surgery on the Nigerian defence and caused a true momentum swing.
Benzema had another effort hacked off the line and when Nigeria failed to properly clear. Yohan Cabaye crashed a shot off the crossbar from 20 yards.
Valbuena then swung on a free-kick and Benzema’s header was tipped over by Enyeama. But from the resulting corner, came the keeper’s moment of catastrophe as he opted to come for Valbuena’s dead-ball kick but ended up flapping amid a forest of players, leaving Pogba with a simple header into an unguarded net.
In injury-time, France took a short corner, Valbuena centred and Yobo deflected into his own net, under pressure from Yobo with Enyeama again all at sea.
