Saturday, October 24, 2009

Nigeria hold Germany in thriller

By Oluwashina Okeleji
BBC Sport, Nigeria

The stadium in Lagos for the Under-17 World Cup
Lagos hosted Saturday's opening matches at the Under-17 World Cup

Hosts and defending champions Nigeria completed a remarkable comeback to hold European champions Germany to a 3-3 draw in their opening match of the Fifa Under-17 World Cup.

Germany took a deserved lead in the 22nd minute as Lennart Thy powered home a header to silence the home crowd.

They doubled their lead sixteen minutes later when Shkodran Mustafi found himself free on the right to slam home a cross in the Nigerian box.

Both teams returned into the second half with purpose but it was the Germans who compounded the hosts' woes when Mario Goetze made it 3-0 in the 47th minute.

The turnaround began for the defending champions in the 53rd minute when Robert Labus harshly halted Omoh Ojabu in the area, conceding a penalty and receiving his marching orders for the professional foul.

It marked a remarkable fight-back as the Golden Eaglets scored three times in a spate of seven second-half minutes against the ten-man European champions to salvage a point when all seemed well and truly lost.

Stanley Okoro scored from the resulting penalty kick in the 54th minute while Kenneth Omeruo left his marker stranded to power home a header five minutes later.

And substitute Edafe Egbedi volleyed home a deflected shot in the 61st minute from close range.

Both sides had a late chances to win the game but Terry Envoh hit the crossbar for Nigeria while Thy struck the upright late in the game.

Argentina now lead Group A after beating Honduras 1-0 earlier in the day.

In Group B Switzerland beat Mexico 2-0.

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