Argentina Claim Olympic Title Yet Again
Posted on August 26, 2008
Filed Under Olympic Football
Argentina has retained the title of Olympic champions courtesy of a 1-0 win over Nigeria. The Argentines won the title in Beijing after claiming the same title four years ago in Sydney. The winning goal came from Benfica’s highly rated midfielder Angel Di Maria in the 58th minute. The star of the contest was undoubtedly Barcelona forward Lionel Messi. He tormented the Nigerian defence and it was Messi who set up Di Maria to score the winner.
The Nigerians were actually the better side in the first half with forward Peter Omedwingie having a few chances to put them in the lead. The best effort however came from the scorer Di Maria at the end of the half as Nigeria goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin pushed his low effort wide of the goal. At the start of the second half Lionel Messi saw a curled shot parried well by Vanzekin.
There was nothing that the Nigeria goalkeeper could do about Argentina’s winner though. Messi produced a perfect pass and Di Maria held his nerve to run in on goal and chip the ball past the helpless Nigeria keeper. Nigeria brought on Everton forward Victor Anichebe and he went close to equalising denied only by a combination of keeper and defender. Anichebe went close for a second time later on, again only being denied by Argentine keeper Sergio Romero. All Nigeria’s efforts were in vain though, as Argentina held on to their 1-0 lead to retain their title as Olympic champions.
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