Eagles beat Bosnia to keep knockout hopes alive

The Super Eagles of Nigeria have all but qualified for the knockout phase of the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup, after a narrow but impressive 1-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Nigeria began the game the stronger side and created the better of the opening sets of chances early in the game, but it was Bosnia who looked to have taken the lead when Edin Dzeko was put through on goal. The Manchester City striker slid the ball past Enyeama into the net, but the effort was ruled out for offside, with replays showing the referee might have erred.

Nigeria shot into the lead in the 29th minute, following good work from Emenike — a thorn in the flesh of the opposing defence all night — who laid off a well-timed pass for Odemwingie to shoot in between the legs of his Stoke City teammate, Asmir Begovic.

Emenike continued to terrorise the Bosnian defence on resumption of the second half, testing the goalkeeper on two occasions and feeding his teammates on many others.

Surprise inclusion, Michael Babatunde,had a night to remember and stretched Begovic with two long-range strikes, just as Ogenyi Onazi.

While it was Odemwingie who scored the winning goal and duly won the Man of the Match award, Nigerians are likely to pick Enyeama as their hero of the match, following a point-blank save of Dzeko’s injury-time effort, which he tipped onto the bar with the left leg he cleverly stuck out while diving to the right.

Sunday morning’s victor ends a 9-game winless run for the Eagles stretching back to the June 19, 1998 1-0 win over Bulgaria — a jinx the match MVP was eager to end.

“Yes, we are aware of that. It’s been 16 years of no victory for our fans, so we had to work hard to do this for them,” Odemwingie said in his post-match comments.

“It’s very important to win. Hopefully, these three points will take us to the second round; and from there, anything can happen like we did at the AFCON last year. You never know.”

An elated Stephen Keshi praised the boys for the victory and promised they would be better.

“Yes, I’m pleased. I’m pleased because we won the game, and the boys showed character,” he said.

“It’s not easy; we’ve been out for three months; we’re just coming back. We’re getting better and better; and the rhythm is going to come.”

Nigeria next play heavyweights Argentina on Wednesday at 5pm Nigerian time, needing only a draw to guarantee qualification, but a win if it must avoid the rampaging French team (in the second round), who are expected to top their group.

A defeat to Argentina will also see the Eagles qualify, provided Bosnia avoid defeat against Iran, or provided it is a defeat that doesn’t give the Iranians a superior goal difference.