By Eniola Olatunji
To meet winner of Ecuador versus South Korea on Sunday at 2200 hours. …Italy gets last minute penalty to beat England 2-1. Nigeria on Wednesday night had a sweet revenge on hosts Argentina nailing the country to the cross 2-0 to avenge the 0-2 controversial loss in the finals at the Netherlands when Messi completely messed up Nigeria with two penalties.
Not the high decibel noise from the stands could douse the Nigerians who were so determined to have a win because of the show down to get to the San Juan city to play Argentina. A flight scheduled for 0900 hours local time in Argentina was delayed till 1800 hours and Nigeria had to travel nine hours to get to San Juan so they could not train for the match against Argentina. Coach Ladan Bosso who he and his boys turned the San Juan pitch to praying ground worshiped God heads bowed to the turf. Hear Him: “It is a common thing with South American teams to play one trick or the other to frustrate opponents”.
Nigeria’s first goal was fanciful as Ibrahim Mohammed after collecting a pass from Emmanuel sold a dummy that sent two Argentine defenders and their goalkeeper to the turf and scored 61st minute in one of those spectacular dribbles characteristic with the famous Onikan Stadium in Lagos in the days of yore.
The second goal almost came in the same manner with Victor Eletu playing like Daniel the Bull Amokachi who could not be easily hacked down by defenders as Victor just tipped the ball with his right foot to unmarked Haliru Sarki to score in the 90+1 minute. The entire citizens of Argentina did not see stars as in a strong dirty slap, they saw the exit door for henceforth their effigy are limited to the stands.
Nigeria that went into stupor from a Brazil jinx of beating them 2-0 in their last group match will now play winner of the Ecuador versus South Korea R16 match on Sunday at 2200hours still at San Juan stadium.
Nigeria and Argentina met at the finals of the 2005 edition at Netherlands where Argentina ran away with a 2-1victory on 2nd July 2005 at the Gelgenward Stadium, Utrecht before 24,500 fans with Ref Terje Haugne of Norway giving Argentina two penalty kicks which Leo Messi scored in the 60th and 75th minutes and Ogbuche scored for Nigeria in the 53rd minute. Isaac Promise captained Nigerian team which included Mikel Obi and Taye Tawo who won awards with Messi.
Argentina defeated Uzbekistan 2-1; crashed Guatemala 3-0 and slaughtered New Zealand 5-0. On 28th January 2023 Argentina lost to Columbia 0-1 and on 11th May, Dominic Republic received 4-0 bashing.
Nigeria beat Dominic Republic 2-1; shocked Italy 2-0 and bowed to the jinx of Brazil 0-2. Nigeria had cleaned up Tunisia 4-0 and played 3-3 with Columbia before the tournament.
However, danger boy, Cesare Cascadei increased his goal haul to five when he scored the goal that sent Three Lions of England home with a 2-1 victory to Italy. Cascadei scored in the 87th minute a perfect penalty caused by Quasah a Ghanaian playing for England. Cascadei scored two goals against Dominic Republic and got two against another team.
Tommoso Isaldanzi had opened scoring for Italy in the 8th minute before Alfie Devine equalized in the 24th minute.
Italy will meet Columbia in the quarterfinal on Saturday at 2200 hours.
Tomorrow Gambia will meet Uruguay in the R16 match at 1830 hours and winner will meet USA in the quarters while Ecuador and South Korea will slug it out at 2200 hours and the winner will meet Nigeria.
Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line.
Share your story or advertise with us: Whatsapp: +2347068606071 Email: info@newspotng.com
