Football: Nigeria, Greece play barren draw

Football: Nigeria, Greece play barren draw

Wednesday, June 4, 2014 5:24 am


Greece and Nigeria battled to a scoreless draw Tuesday in an international friendly match in Philadelphia that served as a World Cup warm-up for both teams.

Greece had their fair share of chances, but couldn’t get past Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, who made a superb double save on Georgios Samaras and Dimitris Salpingidis in the 8rd minute.

Greece had the majority of the opportunities in the first half as well, with Lazaros Christodoulopoulos firing a 30-yard rocket that just went high in the 21st minute.

Ogenyi Onazi (R) of Nigeria escapes with the ball before Andreas Samaris (L) and Fanis Gekas (C) of Greece

Ogenyi Onazi (R) of Nigeria escapes with the ball before Andreas Samaris (L) and Fanis Gekas (C) of Greece

Ioannis Fetfatzidis was turned away in the 28th minute by Enyeama.

Early in the second half, Nigeria picked up their attack on the strength of Chelsea attacker Victor Moses, but his runs from the left wing came to nothing.

In the 90th minute, Moses belted a shot from just outside the box that went wide.

Nigeria were coming off a 2-2 draw against Scotland in a friendly in London.

The Africa Cup of Nations champions will play the United States in Jacksonville, Florida, in another tune-up friendly on Saturday and kick off their games in Brazil against Iran on June 16 in Curitiba.

They will also face Argentina and Bosnia in Group F.

Greece will play Boliva in Harrison, New Jersey, on Friday before heading for their base camp in Brazil at Aracaju.

Greece have never qualified for the knockout stages in their previous appearances at the finals but will fancy their chances as they have been drawn in Group C with Colombia, who will be without talismanic striker Radamel Falcao, Japan and the talented but ageing Ivory Coast.

Greece open their campaign against Colombia on June 14 in Belo Horizonte.


Join The Conversation

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.