Enyeama gifts Greece first finals victory

A BLUNDER by Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama handed Greece their first victory at the fifth attempt in two World Cup finals.

It also maintained their slim hopes of an appearance in the next stage although their final Group B game is against Argentina.

Enyeama, whose side were down to 10 men following Sani Kaita’s red card, failed to deal with a soft shot from Alexandros Tziolis in the 72nd minute.

The rebound fell to Vasileios Torosidis, who toe-poked the ball home to give Greece victory.

Celtic striker Georgios Samaras said: “They are an African team with a lot of strength with power and pace. We pushed ourselves to the limit. This is a good moment for us.”

Greece coach Otto Rehhagel was happy his team had kept alive hopes of progressing.

“We are going to take on Argentina, a world class team. They will clearly be better than us and we have got to see how to cope with them,” he said.

“We all know the Argentine team is of extraordinary quality.”

Nigeria now face an early exit. Yet the game had started so well for them. They took the lead after 16 minutes following a defensive howler by their opponents.

Greece failed to cut out an inswinging free-kick from Kalu Uche and goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas was left rooted to the spot as the ball nestled in the net behind him.

The match took a dramatic twist in the 34th minute when Nigeria were reduced to 10 men.

Kaita was handed a straight red card by referee Oscar Ruiz following a tussle with Torosidis. Kaita showed his studs to the defender and was immediately banished to the dressing room.

Kaita said afterwards: “I would like to apologise to the Nigerian people, my team-mates and to the officials.”

Greece coach Otto Rehhagel reacted to the sending off by bringing on striker Georgios Samaras instead of defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos two minutes later.

And they almost drew level in the 39th minute only for Enyeama to superbly block a shot from Salpingidis.

Greece stepped up the pace and Samaras then saw his effort cleared off the line by Lukman Haruna.

Nigeria were finally breached a minute before the break when Salpingidis scored the equaliser, his effort deflecting off a defender after Konstantinos Katsouranis had played the ball into his path. It was Greece’s first World Cup finals goal.

Greece made a confident start to the second half and Uche saw his clever cross palmed on to the roof of the net by Enyeama in the 48th minute.

Nigeria were again grateful to Enyeama in the 68th minute when he clawed away a powerful header from Samaras.

Then came the mistake by the goalkeeper although he did well to beat away Tziolis’s effort in stoppage time to prevent Greece extending their lead.

GREECE: Tzorvas, Kyrgiakos, Vyntra, Papadopoulos, Torosidis, Tziolis, Papastathopoulos (Samaras 36), Katsouranis, Karagounis, Gekas (Ninis 79), Salpingidis.

NIGERIA: Enyeama, Odiah, Yobo, Shittu, Taiwo (Echiejile 55), Kaita, Etuhu, Haruna, Uche, Yakubu, Odemwingie (Obasi Ogbuke 46), Echiejile (Afolabi 77).

Ref: Julian Oscar Ruiz Acosta (Colombia).