Ethiopia: Emmanuel Emenike converted a 90th-minute penalty for his second goal to lead Nigeria to a 2-1 win in Ethiopia in Africa's World Cup playoffs on Sunday and put the continental champion in a strong position to reach the tournament in Brazil next year.
Emenike canceled out Behailu Assefa's opener and scored again from the spot in the final minute to strike a blow to Ethiopia's hopes of making the World Cup for the first time. The second leg of the decisive playoff is in Nigeria on Nov. 16 and the aggregate winner will claim one of Africa's five places at the World Cup.
Nigeria appear set for a fifth appearance in the last six World Cups, although the African Cup winner trailed in Addis Ababa after Assefa's opener in the 57th minute. That came after a much stronger start from the Ethiopians, who had most of the possession.
The home team also thought they had scored in the first-half but the referee ruled that striker Saladin Said's effort had not crossed the line. Assefa did give Ethiopia the advantage early in the second half when goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama couldn't deal with his shot and ended up helping the ball over the line.
But Nigeria finished strongly and Emenike, who was joint top scorer at the African Cup of Nations this year, equalised in the 67th and hit the winner from the spot in the final minute for Stephen Keshi's team.
Disgruntled with the disallowing of Saladin's 23rd-minute attempt, the Ethiopia Football Federation said it would register a complaint with the Confederation of African Football against referee Neant Alioum of Cameroon.
In the other playoffs, Ivory Coast beat Senegal 3-1 and Burkina Faso beat Algeria 3-2 in their first legs on Saturday. Tunisia host Cameroon on Sunday and Egypt play in Ghana on Tuesday.
Comments
0 comment