The Nigerian men football team earned itself an early victory in the Olympics holding in Rio as it beat its first rival, Japan 5 to 4 on Thursday.
The early victory comes just hours after the team was involved in a technical travel mix-up.
Recall that the Nigerian team had been stranded in Atlanta for days due to the late payment of flight bookings, flight cancellations and a case of small air space for the team. The Nigerian Dream Team VI however beat the odds to arrive at the competition on the day of its first game landing in Manaus at 2:19 pm yesterday.
The Nigerian team took an early lead in the game with Sadiq Umar netting the first goal in the competition. An equalizer was then pushed for by the Japaneses team putting Shinzo Koroki in front of the goal with a penalty kick.
Oghenakaro Etobo put the Nigerian team ahead once again. The goal was however countered by Takumi Minamino’s kick which brought both teams to a 2-2 scoreline.
The game however suffered a goal drought till the 41st minute when Etebo put Nigeria back in front and in the scoreboard with yet another goal coming in from him at the 50th minute of the game completing his hat trick.
The Japanese team however came up strong with Takuma Asano pulling one back with 20 minutes to go, and Musashi Suzuki narrowed the gap to one deep into injury time.
The game ended 5-4 in favour of the Nigerian Super Eagles.