Wednesday, 13/10/2010
Lionel Messi ran the show, but Gabriel Heinze scored the only goal of an excellent match that starred Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama.
Argentina coach Diego Maradona had an embarrassment of attacking players to select from and went for a stunning front three of Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain, Barcelona’s Messi and Carlos Tevez of Manchester City.
Diego Maradona’s World Cup debut as a coach ended in a victory as Lionel Messi started to demonstrate he could transform his club form at Barcelona to the world stage.
Gabriel Heinze headed in the only goal after five minutes but Messi, so often unable to reproduce the Nou Camp sparkle on national team duty, was his team’s star.
However he and his team-mates were unable to make the margin of victory a more convincing one as Vincent Enyeama in the Nigeria goal denied them time and again.
Man of the Match: Vincent Enayama - Lionel Messi looked at his scintillating best at times but he was thwarted, along with a number of his team-mates, by the fantastic Enayama. The goalkeeper produced an incredible fingertip stop to deny Messi in the first half and also frustrated Gonzalo Higuain several times during the game.
Argentina (4-3-3) Romero; Gutierrez, Demichelis, Samuel, Heinze; Mascherano, Veron, Di Maria; Tevez, Messi, Higuain.
Nigeria (4-4-2) Enyeama; Odiah, Shittu, Yobo, Taiwo; Haruna, Etuhu, Haruna, Kaita, Ogbuke Obasi; Yakubu, Obinna.
Referee Wolfgang Stark (Germany)
Tags: Argentina, Argentina 1-0 Nigeria, Argentina vs Nigeria, Gabriel Heinze, Nigeria, Video, World Cup, World Cup 2010
I used to like Argentina, then again I realized how a lot of the fans look down on other individuals bc they thought they were G O D ‘s gift to soccer. Hahaha learn to be a little humble. Messi you’re still da man!