Argentina 2 Nigeria 4: Arsenal's Alex Iwobi stars as Lionel Messi misses Super Eagles comeback

AFP/Getty Images
Tom Doyle14 November 2017

Arsenal forward Alex Iwobi scored tow goals as Nigeria fought back to stun Argentina with a 4-2 friendly victory on Tuesday night.

Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli rested Lionel Messi following their 1-0 win over Russia on Saturday, and it seemed that they could cope without him as Ever Banega and Sergio Aguero put them in control at the Krasnodar Stadium in Russia.

Banega curled in a free-kick, awarded after Nigeria goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi picked the ball up outside his area, in the 28th minute and Aguero finished off a sweeping counter-attack eight minutes later.

But Kelechi Iheanacho inspired the Nigeria fightback by emulating Banega with a free-kick on the stroke of half-time, while Manchester City star Aguero was taken to hospital after fainting in the dressing room during the interval.

Iheanacho then set up the equaliser after the break by pulling the ball back for Iwobi to stroke into the net 52 minutes into the game.

The Super Eagles took the lead two minutes after that when Brian Idowu sidefooted home from the edge of the area to finish off a counter attack.

A superb goal by Iwobi completed the comeback in the 73rd minute as he collected the ball, slipped it between Javier Mascherano's legs and fired past Agustin Marchesin.

Argentina staggered through their World Cup qualifying campaign, only clinching their place at the finals with a 3-1 win in Ecuador in their final match.

Additional reporting by Reuters.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in