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Wednesday 5 March 2014

International Friendly: Nigeria, Mexico Play To Goalless Draw




The international friendly match between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the El-Tri of Mexico played at the Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia ended in a goaless draw.

Despite not producing a single goal, the encounter was not devoid of intrigueing moments, as both side made incursions and pulled a superb save out of their respective goalkeepers.


Steven Keshi gave a debut start to Micheal Uchebo while Imoh Ezekiel and Loen Balogun settled for a place on the bench on their debut for the national team.

Mexico welcome back experienced and prolific striker, Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez, who has been absent from the team for a long time after falling out with former coach, he was joined in the attack by Bayer Leverkusen's Andres Guardado.

With both teams playing infront of a record crowd of 68,220 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, it was the three goalkeepers who featured in the duration of the team who pulled headlines with their saves to keep their team in the game.

Mexico's Guillermo Ochoa made six saves and the Super Eagles' keeper combination of Vincent Enyeama and Austin Ejide made five between them at the opposite end of the pitch.

In the 11th minute, Emmanuel Emenike beat Rafa Marquez to the right and forced Ochoa to make an outstanding save to prevent the first goal of the match. Seconds later, off a rebound from a corner kick, Ochoa was once again put into action, diving to his left to stop a bullet from Ogenyi Onazi outside the box.

With the Eagles piling pressure on Mexico, Ochoa took a knee to the head during a collision with Ahmed Musa, he was down on the pitch for a couple minutes but remained in the game.

It took Mexico 22 minutes to get its first shot of the game when Hector Herrera dribbled to the top of the box and fired a left footed effort over the crossbar. El Tri's first real scoring opportunity came in the 26th minute as Rafa Marquez nearly knocked in a header only for keeper Vincent Enyeama to get his left hand on the ball.

From that point on, Mexico began to gain more control offensively and showed more intensity against the speedy Nigerians. The teams ended the first half with six shots apiece.

At the restart, Nigeria made two sustitution, as Uchebo and Efe Ambrose were substituted for Loen Balogun and Ramon Azeez while Chicharito, who picked up a knee injury in the opening 45 minutes was also replaced by the Mexican coach.

Rafa Marquez nearly knock in a free kick from just outside the six-yard box early into the restart before Nigeria countered in the 55th minute when Ahmed Musa beat the back line and made Ochoa make another big save to keep the match scoreless.

On the other end, Mexico's second-half substitute Alan Pulido tested substitute keeper Ejide with a stinging shot only to be matched by a diving save, before he nearly put in a rebound in the 66th minute, but Ejide once again was on-hand to deny him .

In the closing stages of the game Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa were substituted for Imoh Ezekiel and Victor Obinna Nsofor in the attack just after Leon Balogun was withdrawn for Azubuike Egwuekwe after sustaining an injury.

The two teams could not find a breakthrough despite creating many chances only to fall short of finding the net. 

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