Sports

Nigeria avoids Brazil, faces ‘dicey’ Denmark in quarterfinal

Published

8 years ago

August 11, 2016

Nigeria’s quest for a medal in men’s football will be tested this weekend as the U-23 Eagles battle perennial rival, Denmark for a semifinal ticket after avoiding host Brazil in the quarterfinal fixtures.

The Brazilians struggled in their first two matches playing goalless with South Africa and Iraq but they stepped up their game early this morning with an emphatic 4-0 victory over Denmark to top group A with five points.

They will now face fellow South Americans Colombia, who stunned Nigeria 2-0 in a final Group B match in Sao Paulo.

Nigeria won the group on six points and will battle Denmark Saturday night in Salvador.

The U-23 Eagles have a very dicey match against the Danish team which defeated the Samson Siasia boys 6-2 at the Suwon international Tournament in South Korea before the Olympics.

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Ripples Nigeria can report that the players and officials are wary of the Danes but they are upbeat of overcoming them as the stakes are a lot higher at Rio Olympics because victory at the weekend will catapult them into the medal zone of the summer games, where they will battle the winners of the quarterfinal between Portugal and Germany.

In other quarterfinals, Portugal battle Germany in Brasilia and Korea Republic take on surprise team Honduras in Belo Horizonte.

It would be recalled that the Danish senior team eliminated Nigeria at the 1998 World Cup after beating the Super Eagles 4-1 in the quarterfinal stage of the competition.

The battle for the gold is now between four continents as South America still has Brazil, Honduras and Colombia in contention with Europe which still parade Denmark, Portugal and Germany while Africa and Asia have Nigeria and South Korea respectively flying their continental flags.

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