It took a 79th minute error from the usually dependable Enyeama to decide the game, the Lille ‘keeper – voted best in the French league last season – palming a Valbuena corner unto Pogba’s head for the opening goal. The Eagles pretty much collapsed after that, heads dropping all over the field, and the match was all over by the time Yobo deflected an injury time cross into his own net to put matters beyond doubt.
Prior to that though, Keshi’s team had given as good as they got, dominating the game for a large chunk of the second half and keeping out everything the French threw at them. In the end, it took a combination of tactical changes, and injuries to crucial players to turn the tide in France’s favour.
The Eagles started the game already depleted by an injury to the hitherto unheralded, but now important Babatunde, who’d suffered a broken wrist in the previous match against Argentina, but Keshi welcomed back Victor Moses, who started wide on the right, with Odemwingie taking Babatunde’s place in midfield.
French coach Deschamps opted to start Giroud as central striker with Benzema moving to the left flank and Valbuena on the right. Cabaye returned in midfield, flanked by Pogba and Matuidi, while Koscielny took the injured Sakho’s place in defence.
Both sides quickly settled into their rhythm, both winning corner kicks within the first five minutes. The commitment was undoubtedly to attacking play. Nigeria found much joy down their right flank early on with Benzema’s reluctance to track back leaving Ambrose with ample room and opportunity to push forward. France meanwhile concentrated their best efforts in central midfield where Pogba found much space and Valbuena often drifted inside to pressure the energetic Onazi.
For all that, the first 20 minutes hardly produced any clear chances. Emenike had a shot blocked in the 10th minute and blew another high and wide 7 minutes later. On the other end, Giroud had placed a header wide from a Valbuena cross early on and then shot high over the top from a Benzema pass in the 15th minute. Then in the 22nd minute, Pogba drove through Nigeria’s midfield, swopped passes with Valbuena and smashed a superb volley towards goal, only for the alert Enyeama to push wide for a corner kick.
There were a few other French openings. Pogba had another shot blocked after good work by Cabaye, and Debuchy shot wide from promising positions, especially after being set up brilliantly by Pogba in the 40th minute.
The Eagles hadn’t been docile though. The front four, ably backed by Onazi and Mikel, looked as always for the quick attack down the flanks, and won several corner kicks and free kicks for their trouble. They even had the ball in the net after 27 minutes, when Musa crossed for Emenike to prod past the diving Lloris.
But celebrations were short lived; a linesman’s flag had ruled the Fenerbahce man offside and the ref disallowed the “goal”. It was a close call, but ultimately the correct one – Emenike was just ahead of Evra in the French box.
A more contentious decision would come later, in the 35th minute, when Evra had his arms around Odemwingie preventing him from jumping to reach a promising corner kick from Musa. A penalty call would have been apt, yet American ref Geiger let it go – only to have a word with Evra afterwards. That was lenient to an extreme, and one can only wonder if he would have been as magnanimous had it been Benzema being “embraced” in the Nigerian area.
Odemwingie had another shot blocked in the 30th minute, and Emenike got even closer, forcing Lloris into a save just before half time.
It had been an even first half, although the French had created the better chances. Nigeria had looked well organised at the back, even if the midfield still left too much space for Pogba and Matuidi to flourish – perhaps a consequence of playing a forward in midfield – and had looked to attack frequently, as evidenced by the five corner kicks they’d won.
They started the second half in great form too, Mikel finally speeding up his game and releasing his passes that much quicker. As in previous games, his sluggish play had been one of the drawbacks of the Eagles first half play.
The first 15 minutes of the second half was the Eagles’ best spell of the game, perhaps even their best spell of the entire World Cup campaign. They kept possession, passing the ball confidently and constantly keeping the French on the back foot. The French attack was clearly well subdued in this period; of their 13 attempts at goal, not a single one came between the 45th and the 70th minute of this game. Sadly, despite dominating possession the Eagles didn’t create many chances of their own. Emenike put one shot over the top from distance on the hour mark, and Odemwingie came closest, forcing Lloris into a good save from a left footed shot four minutes later.
Then the game turned on two incidents. In the 59th minute, Matuidi’s wild tackle on Onazi forced the Lazio man off the field on a stretcher, taking away a key component of the Eagles game plan. Keshi had Azeez all changed to take his place, but then changed his mind and sent on Gabriel instead. Whether Azeez would have been a better option is up for debate – we’ll never know – but Gabriel was clearly a downgrade on the impressive Onazi and the Eagles suffered as a consequence.
Then, Deschamps changed tack, taking off Giroud and sending on the more mobile Griezmann in the 62nd minute. Benzema moved to centre forward and Griezemann took charge of the left flank, giving Ambrose a bit more to worry about and stretching the Eagles defence much more. It wasn’t long before the tide turned and the French took back control of the game.
Within minutes, they’d found their groove and started a period of sustained pressure that would end in Pogba’s breakthrough goal. In the 70th minute, Griezmann put Benzema through in the Nigeria box but Enyeama got a hand to it and Moses cleared of the line. Three minutes later, Benzema blazed another effort wide, after taking a pass from Matuidi, and Koscielny’s header was blocked for a corner kick in the 76th minute. From that, Cabaye smashed a dipping volley against Enyeama’s cross bar, and then Benzema drew another fantastic save from Enyeama after connecting with a header from Valbuena’s cross.
The Eagles were reeling and a goal seemed inevitable. It duly arrived on the next corner kick, Enyeama’s faux pas gifting France the goal they would feel all their pressure had deserved.
For all the confidence and composure of this performance, particularly that spell after half time when they were dominant, the Eagles just didn’t create enough chances to win this game. It wasn’t for want of trying too; they certainly pushed hard – they just weren’t good enough to pry open a pretty good defence.
My one axe to grind is the lack of imagination with set pieces in general, and corner kicks in particular. The Eagles won 9 corner kicks in this game, yet it’s hard to recall even one of them troubling Lloris in the French goal. Musa took no less than five corner kicks in the first half, yet almost every one of them was easily cleared at the near post, not even clearing the first defender. Odemwingie took over in the second half, and hardly did any better. At this level, set pieces offer an opportunity to score from rehearsed routines – or at the very least make life difficult for your opponents and force errors – and, is it turned out on this occasion, can make all the difference in a close game. The Eagles didn’t even come close to doing either. In contrast, the French had 13 corner kicks – and scored from two of them.
Beyond that, Keshi’s squad just didn’t have the depth to cope with the injury-induced depletion of its first XI. Onazi’s departure was particularly telling, although in truth, even a full complement may still have ended on the losing side of this close game – the French simply had too many potential game-changers in their squad. In the end, the Eagles lost to a better, more complete team and there’s no shame in that.
For me, this game underlined one thing: when you find yourself dominating the game at this level, you have to make it count. The Eagles couldn’t do that on Monday night; France did.
That’s why one team is heading into the quarter finals and the other is heading home.
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