Argentina Vs Nigeria Thrilled The Fans

The world Cup 2014 match, between Agentina and Nigeria lived up to its billings. It was a thriller in which, the two time former champion Argentina beat their African opponents 3 - 2.

It was the last match of Group F to determine, which team will end up first on the table. Argentina came to the match having already qualified, for the second round, while Nigeria needed a draw to andvance to the next round, regardless of the out-come of Bosnia against Iran.

Nigeria would also qualify for the knock-out phase if Bosnia beat Iran in their last group encounter.

Both Argentina and Nigeria wanted to win so as to finish on top of the group. Until this nail biting encounter between these teams, both teams had not played to the level expected of them. Their first two matches in the tournament were poor. Read also: africanfootie.blogspot.com

Nigeria against Argentina at WC 2014

So everyone was hoping that the match will be different, because each time they met in previous World Cups, it has always been difficult encounters, though Argentina did win mostly with a lone goal due to set pieces.

Anyway, the match did not disappoint, both teams played their best match since the inception of the tournament.

It was the Argentines who scored first, through their highly talented superstar, Lionel Messi after just 3 minutes of play. He pounced on a rebound shot and released a dynamite kind of shot into the roof of the net.

But the Nigerians will not be out-done at this stage of the game. Ahmed Musa, cut into the box a minute later beat his opponent and fired into the far left hand side of the net for an equalizer, 1 - 1.

The mercurial and tantalizing Messi scored a second goal through a free kick. A far net goal which goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama did not see on time and so reacted too late.

Ahmed Musa who had a marvelous game once again equalized for Nigeria, for a 2 - 2 scoreline.

The match was a real nail biting game. The Argentines inspite of boasting of World class forwards such as Messi, Di Maria, Aguero and Huiguin, were finding it hard to over-come a resilent Nigerian team.

But what settled it was a corner kick, which hit the knee of defender Rojo and beat Enyeama for a 3 - 2 winner.

Lionel Messi (27), made a big difference for his team. This was by far his best performance in the mundial so far. He was so good that the Nigeria coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, said later he ''is from Jupiter.''

''Messi is one of heck of a player. He is blessed. You can't take it away from him,'' Keshi said.

''There are good calibre players in the team, but Messi is from Jupiter.''

Bosnia beat Iran 3 - 1, which made Nigeria qualify for the second round, inspite of lossing the encounter against Argentina.

''I feel honoured and happy it's going our way, I want to thank the players and the fans and some of the media,'' Keshi added.

Acknowledging the good performance of the Nigerian players, Lionel Messi said, ''We played against a team that wanted to play. I think we saw a good Argentina. We need to continue on this path,'' he said.

The Argentine coach, Alejandro Sabella, said that his team is improving as the tournament progressed, that they had 9 points but could get better.

''As we advance we start improving our structure, in general I saw improvement today. We've got nine points, but we can always get better,'' the happy coach said. Read also: africanfootie.blogspot.com