World Cup Group G match review: Nigeria v. Bosnia and Herzegovina at Cuiabá

With both teams needing a win to propel themselves into second place in Group F behind Argentina, the first-ever match-up between Nigeria and Bosnia promised to be an interesting contest, played beneath the brutalist steel pillars of the Arena Pantanal. From the first minute the Super Eagles signalled their intention to continue the tournament’s trend of attacking play. They hit long balls into the box, drew corners, and fired a seventh-minute free kick around the Bosnian wall and just wide. When this failed, they sprinted forward on the counter-attack and fired low from outside the box – and all this in the first quarter of an hour! ‘Goodluck Nigeria’ read a banner in the stands – a tip of the hat to the country’s fedora-sporting president – but the men in green weren’t content to rely on luck.

But on twenty minutes, it looked like the Super Eagles’ luck had run out. A Bosnian through ball was slotted home by Edin Džeko, only to be incorrectly and belatedly ruled offside by the Kiwi linesman. The Manchester City forward had another go three minutes later, only to be denied by the safe hands of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. Five minutes after that, the Super Eagles’ peppering of the Bosnian goal finally paid off as Emmanuel Emenike passed inside to Peter Odemwingie, who goaled easily to the sound of Bosnian appeals for a foul against Emenike.

The opening section of the second half was characterised by zmajevi attempting to find a way through the mass of green shirts in the box. By this stage, they had gained fifty-eight percent of the possession though the two sides had made an equal amount of shots at goal. With the sweat making the players’ shirts cling to their bodies in the mato-grossense heat, Bosnian manager Safet Sušić was first with the tactical substitutions, making all three allowable changes either side of the hour mark. Stephen Keshi followed his lead, bringing on Newcastle United attacker Shola Ameobi soon afterwards.

The last half-hour was played at a much slower tempo than had hitherto been the case, as a frustrated Bosnia attacked and a tired Nigeria (with the exception of Emenike, who carried on like an Energizer bunny) half-heartedly counter-attacked. The scoreline stayed at 1-0, receiving its most serious challenge thirty seconds from time when a shot from Džeko was deflected by Enyeama onto the post. It was an engaging and hard-fought match in what is turning out to be the best World Cup of the modern era. A sad way for Bosnia to go out of their first World Cup as an independent nation, but your humble correspondent was left with the feeling that we’ll be seeing a lot more of them at major tournaments in the years to come.

Nigeria 1 (Peter Odemwingie 29’) – Bosnia and Herzegovina 0

Cautions: Haris Medunjanin (B. & H.) 6’; John Obi Mikel (Nig.) 81’

Man of the match: Peter Odemwingie (Nig.)