AFCON 2023 : Nigeria beat South Africa on penalties, qualify for finals

By Ifeanyi Eduzor

Super Eagles of Nigeria has qualified for the finals of the 34th edition of the African Nations Cup currently going on in Cote d’Ivoire.
They defeated their South African opponents by 4-2 penalties after the game ended 1-1 after 120 minutes of play.

The match played Wednesday night at the Stade Bouake, Bouake Cote d’Ivoire saw both teams giving a good account of themselves with Bafana Bafana dominating the first stanza of the game with their tormentor in chief Percy Tau taking some good shots on goal but was denied by the excellent performance of Nigerian goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali.

Both teams tried to outdo each other in the first half but their efforts was not good enough to produce any goal thereby ending the half 0-0

The introduction of Samuel Chukwueze and Abdulahi Yusuf who came in for Alex Iwobi and Ademola Lookman respectively in the early part of the second half gave the Eagles the needed bite as they came into the game more determined and making regular incursions in their opponent goal area with victor Osimhen leading the attack

This paid off as Osimhen was hacked down in the penalty area in the 63rd minute by Maothobi Mvala and the stand in Captain William Trust Ekong wasted no time in converting the resultant penalty.

What would have been the second goal scored by Victor Osimhen was ruled offside by VAR which zoomed on Alhasan Yusuf commiting a foul against Percy Tau in the Nigerian goal area and the resultant penalty awarded to South Africa was converted to make the game 1-1.

After the full 90 minutes, the game went into extra time but no goal was scored by both sides. In the resultant penalty kick, Nigeria converted four while South Africa scored 2 to end the game 5-3 in favour of the Super Eagles who will now play either host nation Cote d’Ivoire or DR Congo in the finals on Sunday