Friendlies: Moses leads Nigeria to beat Poland

A Victor Moses second-half penalty powered Nigeria to a 1-0 win away to Poland as both teams warmed up for this year’s World Cup in Russia with a friendly international on Friday.

Moses stroked the ball home from the spot in the 61st minute after winning a fortuitous-looking penalty from English referee Michael Oliver as the Nigerian took a tumble in the area after the slightest contact with defender Marcin Kaminski.

Poland had a strong claim for a goal just before halftime when a sweeping Grzegorz Krychowiak free-kick looked to have crossed the goal-line before being cleared by Leon Balogun but the linesman ruled that the ball had not gone in.

Nigeria’s teenage keeper Francis Uzoho made a key save early in the second half to deny Poland captain Robert Lewandowski.

The win for Nigeria keeps up their positive results since they qualified for the World Cup. In their last friendly, they beat Argentina 4-2 in a match played in Russia in November.

Poland face Senegal, Colombia and Japan in Group H at the finals, while Nigeria take on Croatia, Iceland and Argentina.

Friendlies involving World Cup-bound African teams:

Nigeria  1-0  Poland
Tunisia  1-0  Iran
Morocco  2-1  Serbia
Senegal  1-1  Uzbekistan
Egypt  1-2 🇵🇹 Portugal

 

 

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