Nigeria to Play Honduras for Football Bronze Medal

Nigeria Under-23 football team's failure to reach the
Rio Olympics Gold medal final after the defeat to
Germany last night in Sao Paulo has left the team to
compete against Honduras for the consolatory
bronze medal match on Saturday.
The winner, Germany will now face hosts Brazil in
the Gold medal game after the third place match.
Against the expectation of Brazilian fans at the
stadium yesterday, Germany created the better
chances, while African champions Nigeria hardly
troubled the opposing defence, who adopted the
offside tactic to curtail their offensive threat.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT
The Germans deserved their lead after nine minutes
through big defender Lukas Klostermann, who
steered home a low cross from the right.
But they left it late to double their advantage a
minute to full time through substitute Petersen, when
he turned in a pass from an acute angle.
Nigeria were gifted a big chance by the German
goalkeeper Timo Horn to equalize three minutes after
the opponents went in front when his poor clearance
fell to Sadiq Umar inside the box, but he somehow
blocked the effort.
In the 20th minute, Nigeria goalkeeper Emmanuel
Daniel made a point-blank save off Lars Bender to
keep his team in the game.