Nigeria win nine-goal thriller against Japan

Nigeria win nine-goal thriller against Japan

Nigeria kicked off their 2016 Olympic campaign in exhilarating fashion on Thursday as they beat Japan 5-4 with Oghenekaro Etebo grabbing a hat-trick.

Umar grabs early goal for Nigeria
Koroki replies for Japan
Etebo helps himself to four goals
Asian team score two late goals
Match summary
Nigeria put their travelling woes to one side as they beat Japan 5-4 in their Rio Olympics opening game in Manaus on Thursday evening.

Sadiq Umar opened the scoring for Nigeria before Shinzo Koroki replied with a penalty, but Oghenekaro Etebo got the first of his four goals in the 11th minute.

The Asian team again replied through Takumi Minamino, but then Etebo scored three more goals to take Nigeria three goals clear.

However, Takuma Asano and Musashi Suzuki reduced the deficit with goals in the final 20 minutes.

Full report
Nigeria had hit the headlines earlier in the week when it emerged they would only arrive in Brazil five hours before the start of their opening match, but they showed no signs of jetlag early on.

It took just seven minutes for Nigeria to take the lead when Sadiq Umar opened the scoring after pouncing on a rebound, but a Shinzo Koroki penalty two minutes later levelled matters after Stanley Amuzi fouled a player inside the area.

But Nigeria were back ahead two minutes later as a Shehu Abdullahi found Etebo and he made no mistake with the left-footed shot, but Takumi Minamino brought Japan level again in the 13th minute.

Etebo again put the West African team in the lead as the 20-year-old made it 3-2 in the 42nd minute after good work from Sadiq.

He completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot six minutes after the restart after Sadiq was fouled in the box. An incredible fourth goal from the striker put Nigeria 5-2 ahead in the 66th minute after some poor goalkeeping.

Despite trailing by a huge margin, Japan refused to go down without a fight and reduced the deficit through new Arsenal signing Takuma Asano in the 70th minute. Musashi Suzuki went on to make it 5-4 in stoppage time, but it was too little, too late for Japan.