Greece vs Nigeria – Match Review
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Greece has secured a come-from-behind 2-1 victory against Nigeria in their Group B encounter played at the Free State Stadium in Mangaung/Bloemfontein.
It all seemed to be going smooth sailing for the Nigerians after they took a 16th minute lead thanks to a Kalu Uche free-kick, which flew straight in as Greek goalkeeper, Alexandros Tzorvas, wrong-footed himself when anticipating a Peter Odemwingie flick-on.
However, in what later proved to be the turning point of the match, Sani Kaita received a straight red card for thrusting his studs into the leg of Vasileios Torosidis, who did little to provoke him.
In reply, Greece threw on Georgios Samaras for Sokratis Papastathopoulos and immediately attacked in numbers as Konstantinos Katsouranis combined cleverly with Dimitrios Salpingidis to force a dazzling save from Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama.
Lukman Haruna then had to clear a witty side-heeled shot by Samaras from a Greek corner, but in the 44th minute, Greece scored its first goal in the FIFA World Cup with the assistance of a Haruna deflection.
Alexandros Tziolis’ scything pass was laid back by Katsouranis for Salpingidis to drive into the back of Haruna and past the desperately unlucky Enyeama, who seemed to have the goal-scorer’s shot covered.
Half-time couldn’t come quickly enough for Nigeria but the Africans responded brightly with Uche’s cross-come-shot needing to be tipped over by Tzorvas.
Enyeama continued his brilliant tournament subsequently producing saves from a Sotirios Kyrgiakos header, a one-on-one Gekas shot and a Samaras header, with the effort from Samaras’ strike nothing short of world-class as he parried the ball wide whilst at full stretch.
Indeed, the Nigerians arguably had the best chance to retake the lead when a classic counter-attack from Gekas’ strike allowed Chinedu Ogbuke Obasi to feed Yakubu, who in turn was denied by Tzorvas.
Tzorvas’ parried stop fell to Obasi, who only needed to sidefoot home with the goal gaping; but the Nigerian was unable to steer his shot back towards goal.
The winner finally came for Greece in the 71st minute when a corner was cleared to Tziolis.
The midfielder drove the ball at goal, but Enyeama’s handling wasn’t up to the mark on this occasion as he consequently spilled it towards Torosidis for the Olympiacos left-back to scramble the ball home from close-range.
Following Karagounis and Yakubu snap shots that went just wide, Enyeama regained his heroics saving magnificently from Karagounis again before denying Tziolis with his first goal of the tournament.
The score remained at 2-1 as Greece celebrated its first victory at the FIFA World Cup.
In recording this historic victory, the Euro 2004 champions also kept its tournament hopes alive, where it next faces the unenviable task of overcoming Argentina in five days time.
For Nigeria, it still has a brief chance of progressing through to the Round of 16, but it will need to rely on itself defeating South Korea, Argentina beating Greece and for the Africans’ goal difference to be superior to that of the goal difference of Greece and South Korea – either way, the odds will be stacked against them.
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