‘Super Eagles’ keep hopes alive after soaring to win

AHMED Musa returned to the lineup with devastating effect as he scored both goals for Nigeria to help them resuscitate their World Cup hopes in a 2-0 win over Iceland at the Volgograd Arena yesterday.

Left out of his country’s opening Group D game at the tournament in Russia, Musa showed his worth with two outstanding strikes that put the Africans back in contention for a second round place.

The opening goal, soon after a drab first half, saw him pluck the ball out of the air with his first touch before blasting it home. The second goal came in the 75th minute, when after a break down the wing, Musa cut inside and waltzed around the goalkeeper before firing the ball into the net.

Iceland’s Gylfi Sigurdsson shot an 82nd minute penalty over the top of the bar, denying his team a chance to try to force a late comeback.

All three other teams in the group remain in the hunt to go through with Croatia, but Argentina and Iceland know they have to win to have any chance of progressing.

Earlier, Iceland and Nigeria fans soaked up the “awe-inspiring” history of Volgograd yesterday as they explored the World Cup city that was annihilated during World War II.

Nazi Germany’s advance into Russia began exactly 77 years ago, on June 22 1941, and was halted in the city, then known as Stalingrad, in February 1943.

The Battle of Stalingrad is among the bloodiest in history.

It raged for almost six months and when it was over the city was in ruins and around two million Nazi and Soviet soldiers and civilians had lost their lives.

“It’s real history,” Iceland fan Heidar Gudjonsson told AFP as he walked up the 200 steps to the “Mamayev Kurgan” monument to the battle – a giant sculpture of a woman with sword raised. “It’s shocking and this monument is something else, it’s extremely dramatic. It’s awe-inspiring and it really has an influence on you,” added Gudjonsson.

The memorial complex to the battle is set on a hill overlooking the new 45 500-seat Volgograd Arena and includes the towering 85-metre statue known as “The Motherland Calls”, and a hall where an eternal flame to the city’s fallen burns.

“The World War II history here is one of the most important parts of the 20th century in Europe so it was definitely a factor in our coming here,” he added.

“We extended our stay here for two nights when we realised it was Stalingrad,” said another Iceland fan, Finnur Einarsson, describing the lure of the city’s historical sites.

“It’s overwhelming that five, six times the population of our country died in this one city in just six months.

“You just can’t really fathom how much that is.” — AFP-Reuters