The dust hasn’t, and probably for a long time won’t settle on the Luis Suarez situation – the tournament must go on though and tonight we saw Argentina face Nigeria for top spot in Group F. Only Messi so far has managed to put the Argentinians in this position; could Nigeria do what so many couldn’t and tame the Barcelona legend? Read on to find out!
Short answer to that previous question: no. Within three minutes Argentina were ahead! Mascherano had the ball in the centre-circle before playing a pacey, but perfectly timed, ball towards the dynamic Di Maria. He made a run into the left-hand side of Nigeria’s box before shooting at goal from a difficult angle; the keeper parried the shot onto the post and in the goalmouth scramble that ensued, Lionel Messi popped up from six yards to notch his third goal in three games at this tournament.
You’d perhaps rightly think after scoring so early that Argentina were going to have an absolute riot of a time here but that, initially, wasn’t to be the case as Nigeria hit back instantly with a goal of their own! Babtunde powered through the heart of the Argentinian midfield before passing wide to the overlapping Musa on the left flank; he then cut inside onto his right foot and smashed a great effort into the far corner of Argentina’s goal for the equaliser. 90 seconds between the two goals; both sides were setting the excitement bar high early on!
Di Maria and Higuain both had good chances in the next few minutes as the former struck a swerving effort from 35 yards out, stinging the palms of Victor Enyeama in the Nigerian goal before the latter was played in on another occasion by Messi but ran too wide, leaving an impossible angle from which to shoot from and his effort went out for a goal-kick. Argentina continued to maintain control of the game for large periods of the first half, restricting Nigeria mainly to counter-attacks or very brief spells of possession in the less dangerous areas.
Half-time approached and Argentina looked like they weren’t going to be able to make their dominance pay off; they had good chances again but nothing came off, and with Sergio Aguero going off with an injury it looked like it might be a long day for Argentina fans. Messi had other ideas though. Right at the end of the first half Messi took one free-kick, forcing a great save out of Enyeama, before winning another one a minute later. Messi took it again and this time he didn’t miss as he whipped a curling effort over the wall and into the top corner from 25 yards out; Enyeama was rooted to the spot as Messi worked his magic to send Argentina into the break leading 2-1.
The first five minutes of the second half were equally as hectic as the first as Nigeria equalised within the opening three minutes of the half. Musa matched Messi’s goal-scoring contribution in the game up to that point by adding his second of the game, slotting home coolly after being played in by Emmanuel Emenike. Argentina went back ahead instantly though to set the atmosphere in Porto Alegre on fire as Garay headed a corner towards goal before the ball took a deflection off of the knee of his defensive partner, Rojo, who knocked the ball into the goal to put Argentina 3-2 up.
Argentina continued to force the issue without creating any clear-cut chances before Messi made his exit after 65 minutes. Argentina had been very impressive at times in the game before Messi’s exit, doing well offensively for sustained periods of times but couldn’t put as many chances away as they’d have liked. Defensively they still didn’t look very sharp at all; Nigeria’s pace and power had really caused them problems at times and, had it not been for a bit of clumsiness to give Messi the free-kick for the second goal and a lack of organisation to gift Rojo the goal from the corner, Argentina might well have been behind in this game.
After Messi’s exit, the game became much more even with Nigeria, predominantly through Musa, working the Argentinian defence much more than Argentina were testing Nigeria. Di Maria was at the forefront of all of Argentina’s better work after Messi’s exit but despite frequently creating half-chances, Argentina couldn’t take them and the game finished 3-2. What looked like, after scoring so early, a potential walk in the park for the Argentinians, the Nigerians fought back well sticking with the South Americans all the way and narrowly losing out after putting in an impressive display. Argentina should have a relatively straightforward fixture in their first knockout game but if they’re to go on to win the tournament, some defensive improvements are definitely necessary! Stick with us here at Fortitude to see how the Argentinians do.