Super Eagles Beat Tahiti Silly (6-1)

NIGERIA got off to an impressive start of the Confederations Cup with an emphatic 6-1 win over minnows Tahiti in a Group B match played at Belo Horizonte stadium on Monday . The Super Eagles took the lead in the fifth minute when defender Elderson Echiejile’s shot was deflected by the bodies of Ludivion Teheivarii and Jonathan Tehau.

Nigeria doubled the lead in the 10th minute when a wrong foot to the ball by a Taitian defender found Nnamdi Oduamadi who beat Nicolas Vallar and Teheivani Ludivion before lifting the ball past goalkeeper Xavier Samin.

The Super Eagles were almost going to score every five minutes until Ahmed Musa’s miskick in the 15th minute broke that trend. Five minutes later, John Obi Mikel’s kick outside the  18-yard went a little over the bar.

But Oduamadi scored the Eagles third goal and his second on the night in the 26th minute after Musa’s pullout was spilled by goalkeeper Samin.

After the third goal the Super Eagles players became more wasteful in front of goal with Ujah, who came face to face with the Tahitian goalkeeper wasting the chance in the 29th minute. This was followed by Sunday Mba in the 39th minute.

The Tahitians on the other hand became more puposeful in the second half and in the 54th minute, a corner kick lifed over goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and defender Efe Ambrose found Jonathan Tehau who headed in for the Tahitians’ only goal.

However, Jonathan, whose twin brother Lorenzo also featured for their country in the match, was again on the scorers’sheet in the 69th minute when he scored an own goal.

Seven minutes later Oduamadi scored his third goal of the night to become the first Nigerian player to score a hat-trick in a FIFA match at the senior level.

Echiejile completed the rout with his second goal in the 80th minute  to end match at 6-1.

Nigeria now lead the group on superior goals, followed by Spain who defeated Uruguay 2-1 on Sunday.