Nigeria Super Eagles Beat Elephants of Cote D’ivoire 2-1 To Advance

Pin It Now!

Super Eagles of Nigeria

The Super Eagles of Nigeria this afternoon proved soccer pundits wrong by beating the Elephant of Cote D’ivoire 2-1 in AFCON 2013 quarter final match in South Africa. It was a match many soccer followers never gave the Super Eagles chances of winning. However, the Nigerians came into the game highly determined to beat the Ivoirians whom they had never beaten in the last 4 games they met.

The Super Eagles did not really impress Nigerians in their group matches in which they drew against Burkina Faso and Zambia, and only managing to win the Ethiopians by 2-0 in their last match. But the match against the Elephants was a different ball game as the Eagles gave a very good account of themselves, dominating the first half of the game.

Elephants of Cote D'ivoire

The Nigerians were great in every area of the game, denying Yaya Toure, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Gervinho and others the opportunity of running circles around them like they did in their group matches against Tunisia and Togo.

Emmanuel Emenike

Nigeria lost a couple of chances in the early moments of the game until Emmanuel Emenike drew the first blood in the 43rd minute of the first half after firing home Obi Mikel’s pass from the edge of the box to give the Eagles a goal advantage at half time. However, the Elephants came back strong in the second half and were able to get an equalizer in the 50th minute of play through Tiote who nodded in Didier Drogba’s freekick.   Nigeria took control of the midfield again and made sure they got a positive result at the end of the game. Sunday Mba scored the winner for the super Eagles of Nigeria after he single-handedly made a solo run across the Ivoirian defense line to blast home the second goal in the 78th minute.

Sunday Mba

Coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi’s side would be meeting Mali in their Semi final match. Keshi has previously led Togo and Mali to AFCON and lost out at the group stages on both occasions; but now he has broken the jinx, leading the Super Eagles all the way to the Semi finals. Who knows, he might just end up winning the tournament for his fatherland, Nigeria.
What are your thoughts about the Nigeria/Cote D’ivoire match? Do you think the Super eagles deserved the victory or do you think Ivory Coast should have won the match? Share your opinions with us. If you love this, kindly share with your friends on Facebook and on Twitter

Nigeria Super Eagles Beat Elephants of Cote D’ivoire 2-1 To Advance