Argentina is starting the World Cup 2010 with a victory, beating Nigeria by 1-0 in the Ellis Park Stadium of Johannesburg. Diego Maradona’s teams is now sharing the first place of Group B with South Korea (that has a better goal difference), with the game between the two teams coming up next week.
Argentina came strong in the game and was very hot for the first few minutes missing chance after chance. Gonzalo Higuaín lost a fantastic opportunity in the third minute of the match, and two minutes later Lionel Messi’s shot was somehow blocked by the Nigerian goalkeeper. From the corner Argentina gained at that play came the only goal of the game: Juan Sebastián Verón set up the corner nicely for Gabriel Heinze that made an excellent header almost from the penalty shot to open the score for Argentina.
Nigeria did not retreat at all, and had quite a few plays in the offence, mostly with Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Chinedu Obasi but without making any big chances. Lionel Messi on the other hand made Nigeria’s defence dizzy throughout the entire first half, with Vincent Enyeama stopping another great shot at the 28th minute of the game.
In the second half the rhythm of the match was much slower, but Messi continued having a good first World Cup 2010 performance. Messi slightly missed a shot at 63′ and two minutes later gave a superb assist to Gonzalo Higuaín that again found Enyeama in the right position. Nigeria picked up the pace for the last few minutes of the game but didn’t really get close to an equaliser, giving Argentina the victory as well as the three points.
Nigeria lost the game but Vincent Enyeama was the MVP of the match, that managed to win all battles against the best football player in the world, Lionel Messi.
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ARGENTINA SHOULD’VE SCORED MORE GOALS WITH MESSI, HOWEVER NIGERIA WAS STRONG!