Nigeria 2-1 South Africa : It Was Our Relentless Spirit
SOURCE
We fought, we fought, we fought and we got our reward. Throughout the match, from the toss of the coin to the final whistle by the referee, it was all tension. The quartertinals it was and it gave us nothing short of that. The South Africans came on having knocked out Egypt in their previous match and Nigeria also did having eliminated the defending champions - Cameroun. It was a clash football fans wanted to see and it happened..
We sat back but not too deep and we allowed them try to poke our nest but not too dangerously . They had the possession in the first half but we were the better side, we were quick and precise in going forward while they struggled to get past our solid midfield. The breakthrough came for us in the 27 minute when Alex Iwobi skillfully stalled the ball before vying past two energetic defenders, squaring the ball for chukwueze whose first attempt met a solid deflection but his rebound from the resulting deflection left South Africa's goalkeeper, a laboured bystander.
SOURCE
The first half ended on high for us with 5 (1) in contrast to 2(0) for the bafana bafana of South Africa. But they came in after the break, more organised. We were a tad-bit lethargic, or call it defensive while they enjoyed a much larger share of the possession. The South Africans restored parity but not after a it was immersed in controversy. The decision to introduce the use of VAR right from the quarterfinals paid off in just the first match. A free-kick is apparently nodded to a player in an obvious offside position before he equally nods it in to the awe of Daniel Akpeyi, Nigeria's goalkeeper. They rejoiced but the linesman disagreed . In the judiciary, they say the supreme Court has the final say, and as it turns out, VAR is the supreme in football. It was handed over to the team and after the replays were carefully examined, like specimens under the biologists' microscopes, the ball appeared to have actually taken a deflection off a Nigerian and not what we thought. An inadvertent assist, goal awarded.
SOURCE
That goal sprung the South Africans into life, they grew more energetic and poked harder and viciously but we never relented, we fought back too. Luckily for us - through a set piece - we snatched our comfort, towards the dying moments of the match. All we needed to do was defend and we did it. The final whistle from the referee signalled an end to the struggle, the better team progresses and the opponents are left to rue their missed Chances. We look forward to our next match as we take every match, one at a time. We can't of course ignore the proficient 20 year Old Chukwueze who commanded respect throughout the match..
We deserve to celebrate!