Nigeria vs Iceland FIFA World Cup Match Report

The Argentine were just about to pack their bags and kiss their world cup dream goodbye, Nigeria came into their rescue. Yes, the same Nigerians who were clueless in their first game against Croatia and was expected to be the weakest team in the group did what Argentina couldn’t so far in this world cup is to win a game. After drawing with Argentina in their first game, the Icelanders were marked as favourites as the match started and it was expected of them to live up to those expectations that they have been keep on building since their appearance in Euro 2016 but it was all in vain.

The game kicked off 1600 hours BST in Russia at the Volgograd Arena, Volgograd and the Nigerians were certain that this is the game they need to deliver on both with skills and with strength. Giving a taste of their physicality to the Icelanders, Nigerian player Brian Idowu was booked for tackling Bodvarsson. The first half saw both the Europeans and Africans trying their best to crack each other’s defense butfailing terribly in the process. However as the first half ended, Nigeria became the first team to not have taken a single shot at goal in the first half of a world cup match in this world cup. It was only a matter of 45 minutes more before Nigeria also say goodbye to their world cup run let alone saving Argentina’s hope for the world cup.

A substitution was made for the Nigerians in the 46th minute as the booked player Brian Idowu was taken off and Tyrone Ebuehi was brought into the ground. And 3 minutes later, Ahmed Musa did what both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi couldn’t. To score against Halldorsson needed something special and Ahmed Musa from a Moses’ assist hit a thunderbolt to the back of the net leaving the whole stands in amazement. The scoreboard read Nigeria 1 – 0 Iceland, but actually it was Argentina a goal short of reaching the world cup. All hands were in prayer that Nigeria holds on to this lead and convert that into a win. Answering to all those prayers fate gave the second goal to Nigeria in the 85th minute. Once again Ahmed Musa struck this time into the top corner of the goal after beating down the defenders. There was moment of recall for the Vikings bloodlines but they missed on a penalty owing their allegiance to the Argentina and paying tribute to the Lionel Messi penalty miss and threw away their game. The match ended with the score Nigeria 2-0 Iceland.