World Cup debutants, Bosnia and Herzegovina saw their hope of
progressing into the last 16 come to end when they lost to African
champions, Nigeria inside the Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba on Saturday.
It was a match full of key battles, interesting stats and end-to-end stuff. From ending a 16-year wait for a first World Cup win to becoming the African team with most goals in the history of the tournament and also to ending a nine-hour run of not scoring in open-play capture the story of the Super Eagles’ victory against Bosnia.
Supersport.com picks out Nigeria’s key moments in the match that helped downed the Europeans in the must-win clash.
Emenike The Bully
Fenerbahce striker, Emmanuel Emenike, was a constant pain in the neck for the Bosnian defence. If the battle between Emenike and the captain of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Emir Spahic, was a boxing bout the latter would have either had a bloodied face or thrown in the towel.
Emenike completed eight dribbles against the Europeans on the night, which remained the most by a player as on Sunday at the tournament. Even former Ghana defender, Sammy Kuffour testified that Emenike’s style of play against Bosnia reminds of Daniel Amokachi’s bulldozing style of the past.
The Emenike-Odemwwingie combination
The telepathy between Emenike and Peter Odemwingie all through the match was huge in Nigeria putting Bosnia to the sword. The build-up to Odemwingie’s goal confirmed the partnership between the two strikers. The two forwards put no foot wrong and played for each other by taking up impressive positional plays that made it difficult to know the point man though Emenike played as the number nine.
Babatunde’s sweet left foot
The Volyn Lutsk midfielder is one of the players who came up for criticism when Stephen Keshi named him in the Nigerian squad for the World Cup. But Michael Babatunde, for the first time, showed he has a sweet left foot coupled with a high work rate. The 21-year-old preferred ahead of Victor Moses for the Bosnia game forced Asmir Begovic into making two saves from long range efforts.
Certainly, his performance was one of the positives for the Nigerian bench to take into their next game against former world champions, Argentina on Wednesday.
Yobo still a defensive leader
Forget about Joseph Yobo being concerned with only becoming the first Nigerian men’s footballer to earn 100 caps in international games. The 33-year-old, who took up the place of injured Godfrey Oboabona, showed he is still not just up for the big stage but he is the leader of the team.
He quietly did his job as team leader and the most experienced man in the Nigerian back four and it robbed off on Efe Ambrose, Juwon Oshaniwa and the impressive Chelsea youngster, Kenneth Omeruo.
Enyeama’s super save
Definitely Vincent Enyeama’s big save on to the post from Edin Dzeko’s effort inside stoppage time is the best of the pick from a Nigerian perspective. Surely a lot of Nigerians would have had their hearts in their mouths or a few would have vomited theirs.
That super save by one of the most underrated goalkeepers in world football has now earned the Lille custodian new nicknames like Saint Vincent and The Saviour.
It was a match full of key battles, interesting stats and end-to-end stuff. From ending a 16-year wait for a first World Cup win to becoming the African team with most goals in the history of the tournament and also to ending a nine-hour run of not scoring in open-play capture the story of the Super Eagles’ victory against Bosnia.
Supersport.com picks out Nigeria’s key moments in the match that helped downed the Europeans in the must-win clash.
Emenike The Bully
Fenerbahce striker, Emmanuel Emenike, was a constant pain in the neck for the Bosnian defence. If the battle between Emenike and the captain of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Emir Spahic, was a boxing bout the latter would have either had a bloodied face or thrown in the towel.
Emenike completed eight dribbles against the Europeans on the night, which remained the most by a player as on Sunday at the tournament. Even former Ghana defender, Sammy Kuffour testified that Emenike’s style of play against Bosnia reminds of Daniel Amokachi’s bulldozing style of the past.
The Emenike-Odemwwingie combination
The telepathy between Emenike and Peter Odemwingie all through the match was huge in Nigeria putting Bosnia to the sword. The build-up to Odemwingie’s goal confirmed the partnership between the two strikers. The two forwards put no foot wrong and played for each other by taking up impressive positional plays that made it difficult to know the point man though Emenike played as the number nine.
Babatunde’s sweet left foot
The Volyn Lutsk midfielder is one of the players who came up for criticism when Stephen Keshi named him in the Nigerian squad for the World Cup. But Michael Babatunde, for the first time, showed he has a sweet left foot coupled with a high work rate. The 21-year-old preferred ahead of Victor Moses for the Bosnia game forced Asmir Begovic into making two saves from long range efforts.
Certainly, his performance was one of the positives for the Nigerian bench to take into their next game against former world champions, Argentina on Wednesday.
Yobo still a defensive leader
Forget about Joseph Yobo being concerned with only becoming the first Nigerian men’s footballer to earn 100 caps in international games. The 33-year-old, who took up the place of injured Godfrey Oboabona, showed he is still not just up for the big stage but he is the leader of the team.
He quietly did his job as team leader and the most experienced man in the Nigerian back four and it robbed off on Efe Ambrose, Juwon Oshaniwa and the impressive Chelsea youngster, Kenneth Omeruo.
Enyeama’s super save
Definitely Vincent Enyeama’s big save on to the post from Edin Dzeko’s effort inside stoppage time is the best of the pick from a Nigerian perspective. Surely a lot of Nigerians would have had their hearts in their mouths or a few would have vomited theirs.
That super save by one of the most underrated goalkeepers in world football has now earned the Lille custodian new nicknames like Saint Vincent and The Saviour.
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