Hello Steemians and special greetings to the World Of Football. This is my first post and my first contest entry in this community, and I am also inviting all lovers of football to join this contest, if you are interested in join the contest, here is the link.

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MY FAVORITE FOOTBALL GAME.

The game of football is a very interesting game, it leaves us with so many memories and feelings, the fun and excitement that comes with the game is something else. For me my most favorite football game is the football match between Nigeria and Brazil.

The match was the Semi-final fixture for the Atlanta 96 Olympic games; in the build up to the match, the Super Eagles of Nigeria had faced off with the Samba boys of Brazil during the group stages of the tournament and the Brazilians had defeated us by a lone goal .

The D-day has arrived, it was in the early hours of 31st July, 1996, the tension was very high, everyone in Nigeria was waiting for the match to begin, we knew Nigeria was no match for star filled Brazilian team, but somehow we were praying and believing Nigeria would win, and so me and some relatives were gathered in the sitting room of my uncle's house in Owerri eyes glued to the television, waiting for the match to start.

The whistle was blown and the match started, during the early stages of the match, the Nigerian team was in complete disarray, there was absolutely no coordination and synergy between the players, and they paid dearly for it

In the second (2nd) minute of the match, Flavio Conceicao, scored the first goal for the Brazilians and that was a very beautiful start for them, but in the twentieth (20th) minute, a cross from Celestine Babayaro was poorly cleared resulting to an own goal from Roberto Carlos.

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Celestine Babayaro, the Nigerian defender that created the first goal for Nigeria in the match.

Our hopes were revived only to be shattered again in the 27th minute by Bebeto as he scored the second goal for the Brazilians and as if that was not enough, Flavio Conceicao scored again in the 37th minute and at that point it seemed all hope was lost, and you could even see the demoralisation on the faces of our boys, but they managed not to conceive another goal until halftime.

And so first half ended with the Brazilians leading 3 goals to 1, but then second half saw our boys playing with renewed gusto, passion and coordination. The Nigerian side put in a lot of hard work and it paid off in the 78th minute with Victor Ikpeba who was brought in as a substitute scoring for Nigeria, bringing the scoreline to 3 - 2 and thus our hope was rekindled again, our boys were on fire, they were not relenting and on the 90th minute Kanu Nwankwo did the unbelievable, we were now level with the Brazilians, there were shouts of joy all over town it was now Brazil 3 - 3 Nigeria and that was how full time ended.

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Kanu Nwankwo the man of the match whose brace put us to victory.

The extra time started and we were happy to have gone that far, even if we lost at that point we wouldn't feel too bad but alas the extra time didn't even last that long. Three minutes into the extra time Kanu Nwakwo struck again this time from outside the 18 yard box and the ball found its way past the Goal keeper into the goal post and with the Golden rule in place then the match came to an end with the Nigerian underdogs defeating the almighty Brazilians.

The celebration was something else, bonfires were lit in different parts of town, I was in Owerri at the moment and Owerri town was agog with celebrations same thing with different parts of the country, it was indeed a memorable football match which I would never forget in a hurry.

Thanks for this contest for giving me the opportunity to relive this great match.

Cc:
@njaywan

THANKS FOR READING