Nigeria romp to historic win over Argentina in friendly match

Posted on June 3, 2011 by SoccerPunter

Nigeria trounced Argentina 4-1 on Wednesday in a international friendly for their first-ever win over the two-time world champions.

Nigeria’s best result before this was a 0-0 draw with Argentina at the 1995 King Fahd Cup (now FIFA Confederations Cup), with the South Americans winners on three different occasions.

The hosts dominated this game from start to finish and Argentina, effectively a second string side missing several first choice stars, led by Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta were never really in it as they hardly threatened the Nigerian goal and created very few openings.

Real Zaragoza striker Ikechukwu Uche netted a brace to continue his superb form in front of goal with new Fenerbahce signing Emmanuel Emenike scoring his first goal for the Eagles on 53 minutes.

Emenike, 24, made up for an earlier miss after coming on as a second-half substitute with a cool finish inside the box when he reached the end of a long ball and lobbed over the goalkeeper.

Obinna Nsofor was also on target from the penalty spot in the 27th minute after Everton striker Victor Anichebe was fouled inside the box.

Argentina grabbed a consolation goal from the penalty spot courtesy of Mauro Boselli after Efe Ambrose was adjudged to have handled the ball deep into stoppage time.

“We did very well. We started well, we gained confidence with the early goal and we could have scored more goals,” said man of the match Uche.

“This result will help us to prepare for Sunday’s game (Ethiopia vs Nigeria for Africa Nations Cup qualifier 2012). It will lift our confidence and we will keep working very hard to keep making the fans happy.”

His skipper Joseph Yobo concurred.

“It’s a very good result for us. We now have a lot of confidence going to Ethiopia. We are going there to win the game,” he said.

Nigeria are under pressure to win in Addis Ababa on Sunday to stay in touch with Group B leaders Guinea.