Angel di Maria provided the finish to another piece of Lionel Messi magic as Argentina won their second Olympic soccer title in a row, a 1-0 victory over Nigeria yesterday.
Di Maria collected Messi’s expertly timed through ball in the 58th minute and nonchalantly lobbed it over Nigeria’s goalkeeper to give 2004 winners Argentina another gold medal and leave the Nigerians, champions in 1996, with the silver.
Brazil won the bronze on Friday by beating Belgium 3-0 in Shanghai, but now have to live with the fact that their southern neighbors have two Olympic titles and they have none. After the final, Ronaldinho and his teammates collected their bronze medals and saw the title go to their biggest rivals.
PHOTO: AFP
Di Maria’s strike was a goal to lift a final that was badly hit by searing temperatures of 42ºC.
The referee took the rare step of twice allowing players to stop and take drinks.
The only soccer game to be played in Beijing’s main Olympic stadium, yesterday’s match was watched by a crowd of 89,102 — including Argentina great Diego Maradona. But the fans had to wait a long time to be entertained.
Not surprisingly in the searing heat, the game was poor quality in the first half with too many mistakes, misplaced passes and players trying to move slowly around the field to conserve energy.
Nigeria almost went ahead shortly after the drink break when Odemwingie crossed from the left and Promise Isaac just missed the ball in front of goal. The ball came back and Isaac’s looping header was saved by Romero above his head.
Argentina were very disappointing in the first half, but Di Maria almost made the breakthrough with a 30m shot that Ambruse Vanzekin pushed round the post.
Messi produced one of his special moments in the 50th minute when he spun past a defender just outside the area and fired a left-footed drive that Vanzekin punched away. Then came his pass that set up the goal.
Riquelme went into a tackle inside the center circle and the ball spun out to Messi, who immediately released Di Maria. The Benfica midfielder had only goalkeeper Vanzekin to beat and nonchalantly lobbed the ball over him into the net.
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