Johannesburg, Jun 18: In a brilliant performance, the Greeks clinched their first ever World Cup win against Nigeria in the second round of the Group B match on Thursday, Jun 17.
Greece arose from being one goal down to seal an impressive 2-1 victory against the Africans, who will now have to beat South Korea in their final group match and pray that Maradona's men defeat Greece in their next meeting.
The Nigerians scored the first goal quiet early in the game but also lost a man quiet early in the game to a red card. Kalu Uche converted his 16th minute free kick into a goal to give his team a lead. Uche's strike perplexed Greece goalkeeper Alexadros Trzorvas and left the crowd celebrating.
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The turning point of the match came in the 33rd minute when Nigeria"s Sani Kaita was shown a red card and sent out of the field for getting aggressive and kicking Vassilis Torosidis. Now the 10-man Nigerian squad had a tough time keeping their defence intact, which worked to the rivals' advantage.
Immediately after this, Giorgios Samaras was brought into the game. At 43rd minute, Greece scored an equaliser. Dimitris Salpingidis shot from the edge of the box, the ball deflected off Haruna Lukman and landed in the net.
The second half was filled with aggressive attacks from both the sides. However, the Nigerian goalie Enyeama denied the Greeks of a lead with several saves.
But at the 71st, Vassilis Torosidis, in an attack that seemed to have come as a sweet revenge against Kaita's kick directed at him, cancelled off Uche's first goal lead and scored the second goal for Greece leading the team to a historic win.
While it's well-earned celebration time for the Greece, the team has to quickly shaped up to clash against Argentina. Nigerians, on the other hand, will be keen on defeating South Korea and hoping that the Greeks are defeated so that they can enter into the 16.
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