Late Goals Bane of African Teams in Russia World Cup

Kunle Adewale, reporting from St. Petersburg, courtesy StarTimes

From Egypt to Morocco it has been the same song for Afican teams yo the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
In their first game against Uruguay, the Pharaohs of Egypt ere almost running away with a goalless draw when they conceded a goal in the last minute of the game.

Next came Morocco against Iran.After putting up a good fight against the Iranians-holding them for more than 90 minutes, an own goal in aded time cost them a point.

At that point the chances of African teams progressing to the knock out stages of the Mundial hanged in the balace.

At the end of the second round matches, only two African teams-Senegal and Nigeria had a chance to qualify for the second round, with Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia mathematically out of the competion.
Nogeria with three points needed just a draw against Lionel Messi led Argentina, who needed a win to progress after just one point from their draw against Iceland.

Inspired by the five times World Footballer of the Year, Messi, the Argentines dominated the early stages of the encounter and it came as a little surprise when the FC Barcelona man shot the South Americans into the lead midway into the game and the half ended 1-0 in favour of the Argentines.

Nigeria however leveled up qiuckly in the second half through a well taken penalty by Victor Moses.
Poor marksmanship denied the Argies in thier quest to regain their lead.

With time ticking out and Nigerian fans now finding their voices in a crowd dominated by more than 90 per cent by the Argentine fans

And with the scoreboad reading 86 minutes and Nigerian now believing a second round ticket is in the offing, like decimal,which keeps occiring, another African team-Nigeria conceded a late goal.

With Nigeria out of the 2018 World Cup, the whole continent is wishing that another own goal would not be the lot of Senegal.

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