Musa magic helps Nigeria defeat Iceland

At the end of the second half, the referee awarded a penalty shot to Nigeria’s net and did not change his decision even after the use of the VAR (Visual Assistant Referee) system.

Ahmed Musa has clearly been the focus of attention for getting Nigeria’s World Cup campaign back on track after his two well-taken goals in a 2-0 victory over Iceland on Friday in Volgograd.

In Nigeria, Super Sport will live stream the match, and in Iceland, the Irish online RTE Player has the streaming video.

“We know we can do it, our confidence is coming back”.

Aron Gunnarsson’s long throw-ins have been a distinguished feature of the Icelandic game-plan, rising to eminence in Euro 2016, where England felt the full force of its execution, but today it cost them the match.

He, however, noted that the defence seems to lose focus at a point in the second half.

“Nigerians were expectant and did not give up on you after the initial disappointment against Croatia and you delivered”.

Given Iceland’s penchant for defending first and then launching counterattacks, Nigeria’s sense of urgency seems likely to play into the hands of Hallgrímsson’s side, though he remains modest about how his team stacks up against the Super Eagles. Indeed, television cameras panned to one supporter falling asleep while a soporific first half petered out.

As a team, they just keep going and play for each other with excellent work rate and mental strength. Key playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson remained in the starting XI, having recovered from injury just in time for the World Cup, while striker Jon Dadi Bodvarsson replaced Emil Hallfredsson. They made the headlines two years ago when they shockingly qualified from the group stages of their first ever worldwide tournament before beating England.

“We’ve played Croatia four times in four years”. Against Croatia they were listless, and many were mooting an early exit for Gernot Rohr’s men.

However, Gernot Rohr responded that he couldn’t have played with three number 6 before pointing out the successes of the team with Mikel playing the role. Iceland holds a slight advantage over Argentina with a -2 goal difference to Argentina’s -3.

However, Argentina and World Cup debutants Iceland must win their respective games against Nigeria and Croatia next week to have any chance of advancing.

Nigeria must avoid defeat Argentina in their last group match on Tuesday to qualify from the group. His pace is central to Iceland’s counter-attacking game.

Iceland has every right to be on a high following the draw against Argentina.

Iceland went close again in the 44th minute from a free-kick.

Nigeria vs Iceland, the match 25 of 2018 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place on June 22, Friday at 8.30 pm IST.