WROCLAW, Poland. March 23 (AFP) – Chelsea winger Victor Moses won and converted a harshly awarded penalty to give Nigeria a surprise 1:0 win in Poland on Friday in a 2018 FIFA World Cup warm-up.
Final score: Poland – Nigeria 0:1
Polish star Robert Lewandowski was foiled by the woodwork after eight minutes and had a close-range shot blocked by young goalkeeper Francis Uzoho in the second half.
The scoreline eventually changed when Nigeria’s Moses fell after the merest of touches before calmly stroking the ball into the corner of the net as Polish goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski barely moved in Wroclaw.
While friendly results are often misleading, Nigerian confidence will be boosted by defeating a team ranked sixth in the world, 46 places above the west Africans. Meanwhile, the Poles will need to re-evaluate their strategy, especially for when they will play Senegal in Russia.
“Each defeat hurts, but I don’t think that we were the worst side here, we did not deserve this defeat, we created better goal opportunities and moved the ball a lot more than they did. So that certainly makes me happy, but of course in every game you play for the win. We have not scored in our last three games, so this certainly hurts in some way, but we will not lower our heads in shame” said Poland manager Adam Nawalka after the game.
Thankfully, not everything looked all bad for Poland. As both Jacek Goralski (Ludogorets Razgrad) and debutant Rafal Kurzawa (Gornik Zabrze) ended the game with impressive performances.
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Poland – Nigeria 0:1 (0:0)
Goal: Moses 61′ (Pk)
Yellow carded: Góralski – Obi
Referee: Michael Oliver (England) Attendance: 41 208
Poland: 22. Łukasz Fabiański (46, 21. Bartosz Białkowski) – 26. Przemysław Frankowski (86, 25. Tomasz Kędziora), 20. Łukasz Piszczek (46, 3. Artur Jędrzejczyk), 15. Kamil Glik, 23. Marcin Kamiński, 27. Rafał Kurzawa – 19. Piotr Zieliński, 10. Grzegorz Krychowiak, 8. Karol Linetty (18, 6. Jacek Góralski), 24. Dawid Kownacki (72, 7. Arkadiusz Milik) – 9. Robert Lewandowski (67, 28. Jakub Świerczok)
Nigeria: 23. Francis Uzoho – 12. Shehu Abdullahi (78, 21. Tyronne Ebuehi), 5. William Troost-Ekong, 6. Leon Balogun (74, 4. Kenneth Omeruo), 24. Brian Idowu – 11. Victor Moses, 13. Wilfred Ndidi, 25. Joel Obi (65, 17. Ogenyi Onazi), 18. Alex Iwobi (59, 7. Ahmed Musa) – 14. Kelechi Iheanacho (83, 19. John Ogu), 9. Odion Ighalo (89, 15. Moses Simon)
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