Featured
Rampaging Plateau United continue with goal rampage
For a while now, it has been showers of goals by former Nigerian champions, Plateau United. After their recent away 5-1 win over hapless Heartland in Owerri, their goal scoring spree looks unstoppable.
On Wednesday, they unleashed a resounding 4-0 win over Gombe United. That leaves the Jos side with nine goals in two matches. The high scores have significantly improved their goal difference which continue to increase with every match.
The win allowed the Jos side to retain the second position on the log and with superior goal difference over other contenders with 15 goals advantage.
Playing at home and being held goalless at half time, Plateau United switched mode in the second half.
Alexander Enejo opened the scoring in the 54th minute. Silas Nenrot doubled the lead in the 68th minute and went further to complete a hattrick of goals in the 72nd and 79th minute to banish the ‘Savanah Scorpions’ to the bottom of the log.
The Scorpions look to be without any sting as they are rooted at the bottom of of the log.
They have 22 points and a deficit of 24 goals. Lobi Stars continue with their crest wave ridding, remaining atop after a 3-2 defeat of Rivers United.
Samuel Tiza Iorwuese opened the score in the 10th minute but Ukeme Williams restored parity for Rivers United in the 24th minute. Lobi Stars scored from a penalty kick taken by Aloa Danbani in the 43rd minute.
Lobi Stars scored again in the 58th minute by Kumaga Suur but Mark Gibson pegged the advantage in the 82nd minute.
In Ikenne, Remo Stars achieved a double over multiple time champions of the Nigerian league.
After winning 1-0 in the first stanza of the league in Aba, Remo Stars again won the reversed leg making Enyimba the second team they will get maximum of six points from.
They had earlier beaten Bayelsa United home and away. They rose from last weekend humiliating 4-1 loss to Sporting Lagos – the biggest loss in the club’s history.
In a match that could have gone either way, Remo Stars made use of their best chance in the 71st minute as Adams Olamilekan blasted a blinder past Ojo Olorunleke in goal for Enyimba.
The win only puts Remo Stars fourth on the log, even though they sstill have an outstanding home match against Rivers United.
Shooting Stars continued their steady rise as they picked maximum points away at Doma United. From near murky waters of relegation, they swam ashore and are now seventh on the log.
Bendel Insurance lost 1-3 away at Akwa United with a brace from John Ubong Friday in the 22nd and 75 minute and another from Sani Suleiman.
But the visiting team pegged the margin via Zaidu Ayuba on the dot of halftime.
The new found scoring form of Sporting Lagos stopped as the team that scored four goals against Remo Stars last Sunday lost 1-0 to Niger Tornadoes.
Featured
South Africa plans for ‘Mother-of-all-Battle’ in final Olympic qualifier with Nigeria –
Banyana Banyana game plan was to either beat the Super Falcons at home as they did two years ago in Lagos or earn a draw in Friday’s first leg match of Olympic qualifier in Abuja.
That did not happen as Rasheedat Ajibade’s penalty kick earned Nigeria an outright 1-0 win over South Africa – a first win since the Super Falcons’ 1-0 win in Limbe, Cameroon in 2016.
But according to an account in the South African Football Association website, “Banyana Banyana will have to give it all in the second leg.”
It reported that Banyana Banyana came back from the first half break a much more improved side but failed to convert the few chances that came their way.
“Outstanding goalkeeper Kaylin Swart had to work overtime to deny the hosts from extending their lead.
“Despite creating numerous chances for an equaliser, the game ended 1-0 for the Super Falcons.”
The two African giants will lock horns for the second leg on Tuesday at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria where coach Desiree Ellis’ charges will be hoping to overturn the deficit.
Coach Ellis believes they are still in the game and can turn things around in the second leg on Tuesday.
“Look, we said it was going to be a tight game but we are hopeful of overturning this result in the second leg.”
“We are still in the game. We created a couple of chances, a penalty decided the match but the game is not over.
“I thought in the second half we raised our game a lot and created good chances and could have equalized.
“Maybe we could also have gotten a penalty at the end when Jermaine was fouled but I’m very proud of the team and we will take it back to Pretoria,” said Ellis.
Featured
Nigeria’s Super Falcons on slippery path to Paris 2024 –
Nigeria’s Super Falcons beat Banyana Banyana of South Africa 1-0 in their first leg of the final qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The return leg comes up on Tuesday in Pretoria.
The South Africans consider the result a good one going into the final qualifier.
Skipper of the side, Rasheedat Ajibade scored the lone goal from a penalty spot in the 43rd minute.
It is Nigeria’s first outright defeat of South Africa since 2018 when Nigeria excelled in an ensuing penalty shootout after a goalless draw in the final match of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana.
In their next two matches.
First, they pulled off a big upset beating Nigeria 4-2 to win the Aisha Buhari Cup in Lagos in September 2021 and followed up with another 2-1 win in a Group C match at the 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Featured
Tragedy hits South African football as international player is shot dead! –
Former South Africa junior international Luke Fleurs, who played for the country’s most popular club Kaizer Chiefs, has been killed in an attempted hijacking in Johannesburg, police officials confirmed on Thursday.
The 24-year-old was shot in the chest at a petrol station on Wednesday night and the assailants drove off in his vehicle.
“While waiting to be served by the petrol attendant, he was confronted by two armed males,” police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Mavela Masondo told reporters, adding no arrests had yet been made.
Centre back Fleurs played every minute for South Africa at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, and that same year was called up to the senior team for World Cup qualifiers against Ethiopia, though he did not make it off the bench and was uncapped.
“We woke up to the heartbreaking and devastating news of the passing of this young life. This is such a huge loss for his family, friends, his teammates and football in general. We are all grieving this young man’s passing,” South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan said in a statement.
South Africa’s Minister of Sport, Arts & Culture, Zizi Kodwa said he was “saddened that yet another life has been cut short due to violent crime”.
Fleurs joined Chiefs from SuperSport United in October, having come through the Ubuntu Football Academy in Cape Town.
-Reuters
-
Nigerian Football1 week ago
Remo Stars add fuel to the fire as title chase turns East – West battle
-
CAF Confederation Cup2 days ago
Nigeria’s Samson Adamu signs Algeria’s USM match forfeiture
-
UEFA Champions League1 week ago
Nigerians among Leverkusen’s African quintetin historic Bundesliga triumph
-
CAF Confederation Cup3 days ago
BREAKING! CAF awards abandoned Confederation Cup semi-finals to Morocco’s RS Berkane
-
Nigerian Football1 week ago
Heartland back to their homeland as they host Shooting Stars
-
CAF Confederation Cup7 days ago
Confederation Cup runs into crisis as Moroccan players of RS Berkane are stranded at Algerian airport following seizure of jerseys and equipment
-
FEDERATION CUP1 week ago
BREAKING! Federation Cup acquires presidential nomenclature…7th name since inception
-
African Games3 days ago
BREAKING! Accra 2023 African Games Chieftain is dead