FINAL SCORE -
ARGENTINA - 1
(Heinze 6')
NIGERIA - 0
A tale of two halves, really. Argentina didn't look nearly as menacing as they did in the first half. Messi kept pounding at the Nigerian goal and was denied again and again (really, hats off to the Nigerian goalkeeper for keeping those 7-8 shots out!).
But the second half clearly belonged to the Nigerians. Some of the crosses sent in front of the goal came periliously close to scoring the equaliser, but they missed the final finishing move. Nigeria must be ruing all the chances they missed.
Still, if you are an Argentina fan, you shouldn't be so confident about your team's progress. There is the spark there, but the team lacks a bit of cohesion and some solidity in the defenses. Veron was totally out of sorts in the second half, plenty of crosses and passes from him going embarrassingly away straight into the Nigerian player's feet.
Argentina have won, but they need to improve a lot if they want to progress further. Nigeria can keep their heads high for their nice show in this match, and think about winning their other two coming up.