By RYAN TOLMICH
After a scoreless draw kicked off their Brazilian experience, Nigeria put themselves in prime position on Saturday to advance to the tournament’s knockout rounds.
The Super Eagles picked up their first World Cup win since 1998 by knocking off Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1-0, to grab control of second place in Group E while sealing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s elimination from the tournament.
Nigeria opened the scoring via Peter Odemwingie, who put the Super Eagles ahead in the 29th minute. Odemwingie’s finish was the result of the run of Nigerian forward Emmanuel Emenike, who bullied the Bosnia and Herzegovina defense, knocking down a defender as he ran towards the end line.
The referee however ruled that it was no foul and Emenike’s cross to the middle of the box found a wide open Odemwingie, who placed it calmly into the net to give his side the game’s lone goal.
However, the game’s pivotal moment came in the 21st minute, as Bosnia and Herzegovina star Edin Dzeko had what looked to be the game’s opener wrongly ruled offside by the linesman. Replays showed Dzeko to be fully onside prior to receiving the ball, but the referee saw differently, paving the way for Odemwingie to open the scoring just eight minutes later.
Bosnia-Herzegovina had their fair share of late chances as well, the best of which once again came through Dzeko in extra time. The 28-year-old striker’s shot from the center of the box caromed off Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and off of the goalpost. Enyeama finished the game with six saved, including two after the 90th minute.
With the loss, Bosnia and Herzegovina will play their final 2014 World Cup match when they take on Iran Wednesday. Meanwhile, Nigeria, who currently sit second in the group, will take on group leaders Argentina.
During the game often referee targeted for their controversial decisions but this time linesman is targeted by Bosnia players, Bosnia player Edin Dheko was founded offside by linesman but replay showed Edin was onside and fortunately Nigeria scored the goal in the initial period of the game and eventually Bosnia are out of this tournament.
Shocking!
May France destroy this garbage Nigeria team in the Round of 16! Nigeria does not deserve to advance, but FIFA thinks otherwise.
Blatter is up for reelection, he needs Africa’s votes.
Disgusting! This referee out!!!
garbage Nigerian team indeed..you dont know anything about soccer..watch the european teams drop out one after the other in this scorching heat of brazil..
Well makes our pre-world cup game look better.
Yeah, I didn’t see too much wrong with the goal for Nigeria. The problem was disallowing the goal that Dzeko scored and was onside for.
You are spot on. The linesman’s call wasn’t terrible, it was just wrong. It was so close that even seeing it in replay it was difficult to tell. The only was to solve this problem is replay challenges.
What a second, you say that the linesman’s call was wrong; then you say even on slow motion replay it is close an difficult to tell.
If you can’t telo n slow motion, how can the AR be wrong in real time?
sorry for the typos – for some reason my lap top skips on SBI
Scandalous. Africa were flopping in this tournament and needed a little help from FIFA and the refs. Terrible!!
Agree, this game was sickening. The linesman didn’t lift up the flag until he saw Dzeko scoring wtf
Dzeko is a great player, but he also isn’t.
Especially when he scores goals that are incorrectly disallowed.