Victor Moses
opened and closed the scoring as Nigeria overcame Algeria 3-1 Saturday to take
charge of their group in 2018 World Cup qualifying. Captain John
Obi Mikel, a Chelsea team-mate of Moses, was also on target for Nigeria at a
packed Uyo stadium while Nabil Bentaleb scored for Algeria with an unstoppable
drive.
With
Cameroon surprisingly held 1-1 at home by Zambia, Nigeria have taken a
four-point lead after matchday 2 in Group B, regarded as the toughest of the
five African mini-leagues.
Only section
winners qualify for Russia and Nigeria are sitting pretty with a maximum six
points from two matches, Cameroon have two and Zambia and Algeria one each.
If Nigeria
win three of their remaining four qualifiers from next August -- two of which
are at home -- they will be guaranteed to finish first and secure a sixth World
Cup appearance.
A lucky
deflection off a defender allowed Moses to score on 20 minutes and Mikel
doubled the lead three minutes before half-time while Algeria wrongly appealed
for offside.
Bentaleb
offered hope to the visitors with a thunderous 67th-minute drive only for Moses
to score again in stoppage time with a close-range shot after pouncing on a low
cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment