Nigeria U-23 Proceeds to Quarter-finals Beat Sweden 1- 0 @ Rio 2016

Nigeria’s U-23 team progressed to the quarter-finals on Sunday 7th July, 2016 at the Men's Olympic Football Tournament Rio 2016 after a 1-0 victory over Sweden in Group B courtesy of a Sadiq Umar header at the Amazonia Arena in Manaus.

For a large part of the match both sides were playing conservatively but Nigeria certainly looked the most threatening in attack.
Fresh from scoring four goals last time out, Oghenekaro Etebo attempted several shots in the half” with his right foot, left foot and with his head” but he was unable to get the better of Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Linde.

Nigeria eventually found the opener six minutes from time, when Stanley Amuzie delivered a pinpoint, curling cross in open play from the left wing that found Umar and the Roma man made no mistake, scoring with a diving header.

The Dream Team continued their dominance in the second half, and just three minutes in, captain John Obi Mikel took had a well-driven shot from the top of the area saved by Linde. The Swedish goalkeeper had to be alert four minutes later when Etebo dribbled inside the corner of the penalty box and attempted a curling effort, but once again, Linde saved.

Coach Hakan Ericson did use all three of his substitutes” Ken Sema, Muamer Tankovic and Jacob Une Larsson to try and give his team a new dimension but, in the end, Nigeria’s backline was up to the challenge and held on to all three points.

Similarly, on Friday 5th July, 2016 an impressive performance of Nigeria’s U-23 Dream Team paid off to beat Japan 5-4 in its first match on Friday at Manaus, Brazil, in the tournament.

On Wednesday, Nigeria will close out group play against Colombia in Sao Paulo, while Sweden have a must-win match ahead against Japan in Salvador if they are going to continue their Rio 2016 journey.