AFCON 2013 Video: How Nigeria beat the Mali 4 -1

Posted by Felix Okoli on Thursday February 7, 2013 at 9:55:10:

It was an exciting event yesterday at the African cup of nations semi final match. It seemed that after beating the elephants of Ivory Coast, the Super eagles of Nigeria were already more confident to win at the finals. They gave the Malian Eagles a resounding 4 - 1 defeat at the Moses Mabhida stadium in South Africa.

The Ivory Coast vs Nigeria match was not an easy one but the gods were on our side as we defeated them easily. Yesterday, the Super Eagles played an even more dominating match as they kept on hammering the Malian defense.

The Mali team had really tried and fought well to reach the semi-finals by beating teams like

The first goal(24th min) was from the Nigerian team with a dribble and then cross from Victor Moses to Echiejile who gave a low header to the net to the dismay of the Malian goalkeeper. That changed the tone for the game as the Super Eagles from then kept mauling the Malian Eagles. Call it an Eagles battlefield.'

The second goal came in the 29th min ang was again inspired by Victor Moses who linked up 9 and then Ideye in the Malian 18 for a final finish. Ideye scored the second goal. It seems the ball may have bumped over the keeper or defender before entering the net. That put Nigeria in the lead with 2 goals. Now, the Malians were frustrated.

The third goal came in the 43rd min with a not so superb free-kick by Emmanuel Emenike. Well his free-kick was not Beckham style but he was able to break the defense with a low shot ball which hit the legs of the Malian defense and got diverted into the net being defended by an already confused keeper. Something must really be happening in heaven for Nigeria to be winning like this.

So three goals were scored by the Super Eagles in the first half against Mali.

The 4th goal came in the second half at the 59th min by Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa who was quick to get to a through ball that slipped through the Mali defense and he did well to also slip it through the legs of the goalie. Musa has really got good scoring kills.

In the 75th minute, and perhaps as a sort of consolation for their efforts, Mali was able to score their first goal with a quick tap by Diarra, a substitute who collected a pass in the box 18 and then scored.

Match finally ended 4 - 1 in favour to Nigeria's Super Eagles who will now play Burkina Faso in the finals on Sunday.

Nigeria had earlier played Burkina Faso in the group C match and it ended in a 1 - 1 draw. I wonder how the final day would be as both teams have gradually improved with every successive game they played.

Why did the Nigerian team do so well in South Africa?
Perhaps because most Nigerian players are already used to the South African weather unlike the other teams.
Maybe it's a payback to Nigeria for helping South Africa in it's time of need during apartheid.
Maybe Nigeria's time has just come once again. Who knows? God knows.