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presents
2018 AHFA World Cup: Nigeria vs. Levantine Union
Nigeria (Bartolomeu Alarcão):
João Lourenço
(C)
Malik Adu
Paulo Abreu
Ibrahim Diya (90+3' Orlando Ferreira)
John Wachuku
Muhammad Nwachukwu
Oladipo Ologun
Muhammad Saraki
Fernão Aguiar (57' Gbenga Wabara)
George Ayefele
Dangiwa Momodu (68' Olusegun Kano)
Levantine Union (Avram Grant):
Ibrahim Alma
Mus'ab al-Batat
Tal Ben Haim
(57' Bassel Jradi) Eitan Tibi
Mohammed Ali Khan
(74' Sameh Maraaba) Nir Bitton
Lior Rafaeliov
(80' Ahmed Awad) Eran Zahavi
Yossi Benayoun
Tomer Hemed
Mahmoud Eid
Nigeria excels!
Were the Lions of the Niger totally underestimated?
Nigeria 5 - 0 Levantine Union
12' Aguiar 1-0
46' Momodu 2-0
54' Nwachukwu 3-0
64' Ayefele 4-0
87' Nwachukwu 5-0
Goals: 5 - 0
Yellow Cards 1 - 4
Second yellow cards: 0 - 0
Red cards: 0 - 0
Corners: 6 - 1
Free kicks less than 40 m from goal: 7 - 2
Shots on Goal: 28 - 5
Man of the Match: Muhammad Nwachukwu
replaced the injured Obafemi Ologun, and then scored twice by headers after corners, and provided the assist to one more goal.
Referee: Fernandéz Carrión Peñaherrera (Revolutionary Colombia)
Grade E: only the VAR - controversially used - saved him and his team from a total disaster in disallowing the ostensible 4-0 and 6-0, but allowing the 1-0 and the true 4-0 as it was not offside.
The Levantine Union and Nigeria were not ranked far apart, and it became quite common to call Group A the "group of death".
Bartolomeu Alarcão had to replace Obafemi Ologun who had injured himself in the last test match (0-2 against the Empire of Egypt). And he replaced Olusegun Kano, brought the more physical Dangiwa Momodu to counter the stout defenders of the Pious.
Meanwhile, the Coach of the Levantine Republic, Avram Grant, preferred Mahmoud Eid over Ben Sahar who had played poorly in the 1-2 defeat of "the Pious" against the Syndicates of the Wolof People.
At the beginning of this match, the Levantine Republic had more posession and even a very good chance when Yossi Benayoun passed the ball into a very dangerous area towards Mahmoud Eid. His shot was extremely precise, but a wee bit too high and thus, João Lourenço managed to save by directing the ball over the bar (7').
A further free kick by Yossi Benayoun also required intervention by João Lourenço (11'), but the resulting corner turned out harmless. More than that, Paulo Abreu managed to gain possession of the ball and outran all Levantine players. Thanks to Muhammed Saraki, Fernao Aguiar and Dangiwa Momodu having moved up, too, a 4 vs. 2 situation was created. Abreu easily passed onto Saraki, Saraki onto Aguiar. Aguiar scored, but in order to check if the goal was offside - Penaherrera had at first disallowed the goal - the VAR was called up. However, no offside position was to be seen and it was 1-0 for Nigeria in minute 12.
From this moment onwards, Nigeria became better and better and the Levantines had few chances. Their players were not fast enough for counters, and few opportunities arose otherwise. The best man on the Levantine team in this phase was Tal Ben Haim, who time after time foiled Nigerian attempts to score a goal, together with the Levantine goalkeeper Ibrahim Alma of course.
But this strategy was doomed to fail at some point, everyone predicted. However, as the half-time whistle blew, it was still "only" 1-0 for the Lions of the Niger and the Levantines even seemed to make a comeback in the last minutes, with a shot towards the goal by Mahmoud Eid and a free-kick from the left wing by Yossi Benayoun.
Failure did set in when, seconds after the game restarted, right from the kickoff, Saraki recieved the ball from Ologun. Saraki, with far too much freedom, passed into the centre-left, perfectly onto Ayefele, he onto Momodu, who easily scored and made it 2-0 (46').
The Levantines were shocked, and Nigeria now took control completely. Tal Ben Haim deflected an excellent Aguiar shot for another corner, which Muhammad Nwachukwu, the defensive midfielder of 2,04 m, headed into the goal. Ibrahim Alma was without a chance. 3-0 it was in minute 51.
Everybody thought that the scoreline was 4-0 after a free kick from the far right. Ibrahim Diya brought the free kick into the penalty area onto Fernao Aguiar, who passed it into the dead centre where George Ayefele just needed to put his foot in (54') - but the VAR was called again. And this time, the Cologne Cellar proved a slight offside position by Ayefele, so that the goal was disallowed.
Which did not matter much, after all. Fernao Aguiar was substituted out after this situation, but even this had little effect as Ibrahim Diya was tasked with a free kick in the 64th. He brought it directly into the penalty area, where chaos reigned for a few seconds - but soon after, the ball was in again and George Ayefele was attributed with the goal.
The Levantines tried to save the situation with offensive substitutions, but it didn't help much either, and the fact that the victory didn't get much higher can be attributed to the fact that Nigeria relaxed significantly, and substituted somewhat defensively with bringing in Gbenga Wabara.
In minute 87, another corner was awarded to Nigeria after Mus'ab al-Batat unnecessarily intervened after a harmless cross attempt by Malik Adu. The corner was brought in by Pablo Abreu, and again, Muhammad Nwachukwu jumped higher than anybody else in the whole penalty are and raised the scoreline to 5-0.
And in injury time, most spectators thought that the scoreline had been raised to 6-0, but the VAR alerted the referee to an offside position of Muhammad Saraki who had recieved the pass from Pablo Abreu on the far left wing.
Debate was rife whether Saraki really was offside or not, and several other decisions, notably allowing the 1-0 by Aguiar, also proved quite controversial despite the VAR being used, and most spectators (not only in Nigeria, but worldwide) believed that the goal which would have made it 6-0 should have counted.
Nigeria now has the likely easier task against New Holland, while the defeated Levantines are up against the hosts of West Germany for the next match.