Sunday Mba scored on
Sunday night to hand
Nigeria a 1-0 win over
Burkina Faso in the Africa
Cup of Nations Final. It is 19 years since Nigeria took
the title – and Stephen Keshi
becomes only the second man to
win the trophy as player and
coach (the other being the late
Egypt legend Mahmoud El Gohary). Burkina Faso played a hard-
fought game, but were
ultimately outclassed by the
Super Eagles, who sealed the win
with a Nigeria-based youngster
in Mba, supporting Keshi’s philosophy of getting rid of the
‘egos’ in the national team
set-up. The match started as a scrappy
affair, although Nigeria settled
soonest. Brown Ideye was the first to
have a go when he shot over an
empty goal, after Burkina Faso
goalkeeper Daouda Diakite could
not hold onto an easy catch
after a corner. Aristide Bance, who made an
impression in the semi-final, had
a couple of chances soon after,
sending a long-range effort over
the bar, and then hitting a free-
kick from 20 metres just wide. Nigeria broke the deadlock on 40
minutes, and credit must go to
the Super Eagles for persisting in
the box. The referee waved play
on after a foul outside the area,
and Victor Moses could have got a penalty but stayed on his feet
to send the ball to Ikechukwu
Uche in the box. The ball then
broke to Mba, who flicked it up
over a defender and, before it
hit the ground, sent a fizzing volley into the net. The Stallions almost came
straight back into it, when
Jonathan Pitroipa went down in
the area after a challenge from
Kenneth Omeruo. The referee did
not consider it a penalty, and rightly so.
Shortly after that
Bance hit yet another long-
range shot over the bar. Just before half-time Mba, high
on confidence after his goal,
shot well over with a long-range
effort from outside the box. Just after the restart Nigeria
could have doubled their
advantage when Moses lost his
marker and played the ball to
Ideye, but his shot from a tight
angle was just tipped wide by Diakite at the far post. A few minutes later Moses found
himself in a one-on-one situation
approaching the keeper, but
took too long to have a shot,
allowing the defence to catch up
with him, and the opportunity was lost. On the half-hour mark Nigeria
went on a speedy counter-
attack, culminating in Moses
finding substitute Ahmed Musa in
the box, but the striker fell over
with a goal in his sights. Burkina Faso then went on a
counter attack of their own,
with Prejuce Nakoulma playing in
substitute Wilfried Sanou, who
hit a great shot towards the far
post, but Vincent Enyeama made a fantastic finger-tip save to
keep Nigeria in the lead. Nigeria then had two chances in
close succession: Moses was
denied by Diakite from close
range, before Ideye failed to get
on the end of a ball across goal. But Nigeria held onto their lead
nonetheless, and went on to lift
the trophy for their third
Nations Cup victory.
Topic: Super Eagles are NationsCup champs! (Read 1490 times)
