Nigeria Beats Egypt After an Intense 90 minutes in Penalty Shootout
- therookiereporters
- Jan 21
- 1 min read
Nigeria defeated Egypt in Casablanca, Morocco on January 17, in the fight for third place in the African Cup. After a draw, the two sides went to a penalty shootout with Nigeria ultimately becoming victorious with a 4-2 finish.
Both sides fought hard with Egypt having 59.6% possession in the first half of the match. During the 36th minute, Nigeria scored a goal which was disallowed by VAR as a result of contact made between Nigeria’s Paul Onuachu and Egypt’s Hamdy Fathy.
The first half ended with no goals on either side; however, during the 45th minute, just back from half-time, Lookman scored a goal for Nigeria, which was also disallowed as a result of Akor Adams being offside.
For the remainder of the game neither side was able to break down the other's defence and score a goal. Salah took a late free kick from a good spot on the pitch after Nigeria was fouled. Salah’s kick went into the Nigerian wall, causing the match to go to penalties.
Salah and Marmoush missed their penalty shots for Egypt, followed by two successful kicks from Ramy Rabia and Mahmoud Saber, which were not enough to hand Egypt the win. Nigerian penalty taker Fisayo Dele-Bashiru’s attempt was saved by Egyptian goalie Shobeir. The remaining four Nigerian penalty attempts taken by Iwobi, Lookman, Simon, and Akor were successful, ultimately granting Nigeria third place in the AFCON competition.
The AFCON final is set to take place on January 18 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat 4:00 PM (GMT) between Morocco and Senegal.
Article written by Israa Ihab
