Nigeria are on the verge of going out of the World Cup after suffering a 2-1 defeat against Greece at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.
The Africans broke the deadlock on 16 minutes when Kalu Uche's curling free kick from 35 yards deceived everyone and into the net.
But the game changed in the 33rd minute when Nigeria midfielder Sani Kaita saw red for a kick at Vasilis Torosidis on the touchline.
That changed the tide completely and on 44 minutes the scores were level.
Dimitris Salpigidis drilled a shot from outside the box that flew in off Lukman Haruna's ankle for Greece's first ever goal of the tournament.
A topsy-turvy game then took another unbelievable twist when Vincent Enyeama fumbled a long-range shot to allow Torosidis to poke home the winner and give the Euro 2004 champions their first taste of glory at this stage.
Lineups:
Greece: Alexandros Tzorvas; Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Loukas Vyntra, Avraam Papadopoulos, Vasilis Torosidis; Alexandros Tziolis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Georgios Samaras, 37), Kostas Katsouranis; Giorgos Karagounis, Theofanis Gekas (Sotiris Ninis, 79), Dimitris Salpigidis
Nigeria: Vincent Enyeama; Chidi Odiah, Joseph Yobo, Danny Shittu, Taye Taiwo (Uwa Echiéjilé, 56, Rabiu Afolabi, 79); Sani Kaita, Dickson Etuhu, Lukman Haruna, Kalu Uche; Peter Odemwingie (Chinedu Obasi, 46), Yakubu Aiyegbeni
Statistics:
Also see:
The Africans broke the deadlock on 16 minutes when Kalu Uche's curling free kick from 35 yards deceived everyone and into the net.
But the game changed in the 33rd minute when Nigeria midfielder Sani Kaita saw red for a kick at Vasilis Torosidis on the touchline.
That changed the tide completely and on 44 minutes the scores were level.
Dimitris Salpigidis drilled a shot from outside the box that flew in off Lukman Haruna's ankle for Greece's first ever goal of the tournament.
A topsy-turvy game then took another unbelievable twist when Vincent Enyeama fumbled a long-range shot to allow Torosidis to poke home the winner and give the Euro 2004 champions their first taste of glory at this stage.
Lineups:
Greece: Alexandros Tzorvas; Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Loukas Vyntra, Avraam Papadopoulos, Vasilis Torosidis; Alexandros Tziolis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Georgios Samaras, 37), Kostas Katsouranis; Giorgos Karagounis, Theofanis Gekas (Sotiris Ninis, 79), Dimitris Salpigidis
Nigeria: Vincent Enyeama; Chidi Odiah, Joseph Yobo, Danny Shittu, Taye Taiwo (Uwa Echiéjilé, 56, Rabiu Afolabi, 79); Sani Kaita, Dickson Etuhu, Lukman Haruna, Kalu Uche; Peter Odemwingie (Chinedu Obasi, 46), Yakubu Aiyegbeni
Statistics:
| Shots on target : | 12 | - | 4 |
| Shots off target : | 10 | - | 3 |
| Ball possession (%) : | 56 | - | 44 |
| Corner kicks : | 11 | - | 3 |
| Offsides : | 1 | - | 0 |
| Fouls : | 12 | - | 13 |
| Yellow cards : | 3 | - | 1 |
| Red cards : | 0 | - | 1 |
Please subscribe to our RSS feed to receive more updates. You can also subscribe by Email and enjoy our latest posts sent directly to your inbox.
Also see:
