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VIDEO: IT’S 26 YEARS SINCE PETER RUFAI CONCEDED WORLD CUP’S 1, 500TH GOAL

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BY KUNLE SOLAJA

When Super Eagles’ goalkeeper, Peter Rufai conceded the first of the two goals that Claudio Caniggia scored in the 2-1 victory by Argentina on this date, 25 June 1994 at the USA ’94, it turned a milestone goal.

It was the 1,500th goal in World Cup history. Maradona had taken a free kick, which Rufai initially saved, but he parried it in the path of on rushing Caniggia who slammed it in from close range to put the scores at 1-1.

Before then, Samson Siasia in an interchange of passes with Rashidi Yekini looped the ball over the Argentine goalkeeper to put Nigeria ahead after just eight minutes.

As a build up to the match, expectations were high considering what Cameroon had done to Argentina at the preceding edition and the way both Nigeria and the South Americans had won their opening matches.

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The Super Eagles with flair, style and power had captured the imaginations of fans. So fireworks were expected when they met Argentina in Boston.

After the Argentine equalizer, Caniggia was on song again from another free kick by Maradona.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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