Nigeria beat Iceland 2-0 in World Cup clash

Musa scored two second-half goals to help the Nigerians beat Iceland 2-0 on Friday (Saturday NZ Time) and move into second place in the group behind already-qualified Croatia.

Following their 2-0 defeat by Croatia last week, Nigeria’s chances of joining Group D leaders Croatia in the Round of 16 have been improved dramatically, but Argentina and Iceland remain in contention.

Nigeria roared to life in the second half after a tiresome opening 45 minutes, benefitting from two lovely goals from Ahmed Musa to see off Iceland.

Nigeria lost its opening match 2-0 to Croatia.

Nigeria tried going toe to toe with Croatia in their opening game with a 4-2-3-1 formation, but ended up being overmatched.

Fed by Kenneth Omeruo, Musa burst clear in the left channel, cut inside and slipped a calm finish past Halldorsson.

Rohr also defended his decision to deploy Captain John Mikel Obi as an attacking rather than a defensive midfielder in the defeat, saying no one had complained during the team’s successful qualifying campaign.

It was a tough choice between two of Nigeria’s midfielders in Wilfred Ndidi and Oghenkaro Etebo but we have picked the Leicester City midfielder as the more influential figure in today’s match.

World Cup Daily: Nigeria have lift-off in their World Cup, while Switzerland and Brazil leave it late.

Gylfi Sigurdsson struck it smoothly round the wall but 19-year-old goalkeeper Francis Uzoho was able to make the save high to his right. The Eagles got their first chance from a corner kick in the 37th minute, which was wasted.

“This group is going to be decided in the last minutes, in the last game”.

FC Augsburg’s striker Alfred Finnbogason has scored in his last three appearances for Iceland, though they’ve failed to win any of those matches (D2, L1).

Here are the Nigeria fans putting the jinx on Sigurdsson and Iceland… His pace is central to Iceland’s counter-attacking game. With a quarter of an hour to go Musa doubled the advantage, controlling a long ball from the back without breaking stride and galloping towards goal, beating Kári Árnason in the process. Also, Balogun went close in the 71st minute off a header from a free-kick.

But in the 75th minute, the former CSKA Moscow star got his brace.

Iceland were given a lifeline when Finnbogason was fouled inside the box by Tyronne Ebuehi, with the penalty awarded after video review.

However, that never transpired, and Iceland withered, as Nigeria profited from the midfielder’s less advanced role in the side.

Arguably the most active Nigerian attacker on the field, Victor Moses was a quintessential figure for his side in the attacking department. Iwobi and Ighalo went close to increasing the tally but their efforts were thwarted by Iceland as the Eagles held on for their first victory in Russian Federation.