NIGERIA’S senior men’s football team, Super Eagles, on Friday evening, edged 10-man Black Stars of Ghana 2-1 in an international friendly match played in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The match tagged ‘Jollof Derby’ rekindled the long-time rivalry between the two African football giants.
However, the match began slowly as both sides lost possessions and could not complete a string of passes to take the lead.
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Ghana came close to taking the lead 20 minutes into the match, but their attempt was denied by Stanley Nwabali in the Nigeria goal.
A few minutes later, Nigeria dominated possessions as Alex Iwobi and Frank Onyeka combined in an attempt to put Nigeria forward, but a low shot by Onyeka could not find its way into the net.
On the half-hour mark, Cyriel Dessers almost buried a goal via Iheanacho’s free-kick; the Ghanaian goalkeeper Ati-Zigi denied the attempt.
Nigeria’s hunger to break the deadlock yielded fruit as the referee, Jayed Jalal, awarded a penalty for a handball inside the Ghanaian box.
The decision aroused protests from the Black Stars players and coaching crew.
But after the dust settled, Dessers stepped up to take the penalty, sending the goalkeeper the wrong way to give Nigeria the lead before the end of the first half.
The first half ended 1-0 in favour of Nigeria.
The second half saw the early attempt by the Black Star to equalise as Lamptey’s cross from the right met Ayew’s, leading to Nwabali pushing wide in the 55 minutes.
Two minutes later, Black Stars player Jerome Opoku was shown a red card, reducing his team to 10.
Undeterred by the deficit, Ghana remained confident, trying to break through Nigeria’s defence.
But Nigeria doubled the lead in the 80th minute through Ademola Lookman.
However, Ghana reduced the deficit through Jordan Ayew during the additional minutes.
The match ended 2-1.