After 120 minutes in the heat of Bouake, Ivory Coast, nothing could separate Nigeria and South Africa, two rivals for the unofficial title of “Giant of Africa”, as a 1-1 draw meant the first semi-final of this very entertaining tournament had to be decided by the dreaded penalty shootout.
Nigeria were favourites going into this game, but did precious little to justify that tag. While South Africa were favourites going into the shootout on the basis of goalie Ronwen Williams saving four out of five penalties in the quarterfinal shootout against Cape Verde. But Stanley Nwabali, who plays his club football for Chippa United in South Africa, had other ideas, saving two penalties in a 4-2 shootout win, with Nigeria almost making it a perfect five if not Ola Aina’s effort that sailed over the bar.
South Africa looked the better side, dominating possession with 61% to Nigeria’s 39%, and had the better chances in the first half. Nigeria started the game well and looked to justify being seen as favourites, but struggled to get Ademola Lookman, who had scored three goals in the tournament, into the game.
The South African midfield had more poise and industry than their Nigerian opposites Alex Iwobi and Frank Onyeka and this must have had something to do with the bulk of the team coming from Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa. Iwobi also had one of his most ineffective games for his country even though his weak effort in the 36th minute was Nigeria’s first shot on target.
Nigeria started the second half well, increasing the tempo, and any team with the menacing threat of Victor Osimhen in front would always be a worry for defences. He missed a header after 56 minutes and continued to harass and harry South Africa, even though Nigeria wasn’t pressing the defence enough and allowed them too much time to hit long balls behind the Nigerian backline.
Coach Jose Peseiro hauled off Iwobi and Moses Simon for Alhassan Yusuf and Samuel Chukwueze on the hour as he tried to wrest the initiative from South Africa. This paid off seven minutes later as wonderful control from Osimhen saw him outwit three South African defenders and had to be fouled in the box by Mothobi Mvala. Skipper William Troost-Ekong converted the penalty as his shot slipped luckily under Williams in goal.
Lookman could have wrapped things up when he broke one on one against Williams, but the goalie was able to snatch the ball as the Atalanta forward tried to round him.
With just two minutes of normal time left, Nigeria broke from their box, went down the other end and defender Bright Osayi-Samuel squared the ball for Osimhen, who tapped in what looked like the winner and his second goal of the tournament. But the striker was to be denied, as he was against Angola, by another VAR call. This time it was for a foul on the Nigerian penalty line by Yusuf against Percy Tau. Aaron Mokoena beat Nwabali with the penalty and momentum shifted to South Africa.
They nearly finished off Nigeria with a minute of added time left as Nwabali palmed Mokoena’s freekick to the feet of Khuliso Mudao, who blazed his effort over with the goal at his mercy.
Osimhen came close twice in extra time. Firstly, with a decent shot from long range and a missed header from an Aina cross but he was tiring and possibly suffering the effects of the abdominal problems that had him miss training in the runup to the match. He was replaced by Terem Moffi with 11 minutes left and the striker from Nice in France forced a red card on Hlompho Kekana a minute later.
10-man South Africa must have felt relieved when extra time was brought to an end without much threat from Nigeria despite the numerical advantage. It turned out that Nwabali was the advantage Nigeria had. As one Nigerian wag said on social media, Nwabali could save the Nigerian economy. The Nigerians have made “Let’s Do It Again” the theme of their effort in this tournament. If they are to “do it again” and win the tournament for the fourth time, the heroic saves of Nwabali would go down in Nigerian folklore.
