NAN-S-8
Draw
By Babatunde Ogunrinde
Lagos May 18, 2017 (NAN) The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) played a 2-2 draw with
the Nigeria Customs of Lagos in a thrilling match of the ongoing Ships and Ports Maritime Football Cup played on Thursday in Lagos.
The match took place at the NPA Sports Ground in Surulere, Lagos
Both teams needed a win to advance to the next round.
This means that the teams have to win their next rounds of matches to get to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
The NPA scored first through Henry Nwosu in the 23rd minute, while Abubakar Musa equalised for the Customs in the 63rd minutes.
Bashiru Sani of the Customs, however, took advantage of a defensive error by the NPA to score the second goal for his team in the 84 minutes.
Bashiru Yusuf scored the second goal for NPA following an infringement in the 18 yard box that made the centre referee to award a penalty kick.
Yusuf scored in the 89th minute.
Nwosu, who bears the same name with an ex-international, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that he drew inspiration
from the ex-international whenever on the field to play football.
He said that the match was tough and expressed satisfaction that his team was able to get a point out of the encounter.
“We played well and are glad that we were able to get a point out of the match; we have to work harder ahead of other matches.
“Our target is to win the championship title; we hope that at the end, we will achieve that,’’ Nwosu said.
Customs’ player, Musa, told NAN that playing NPA was tough, especially on their own home ground.
“We are glad we got a point out of the match; NPA is a tough team; beating them in their own sports ground
is definitely not going to be easy.
“We will work harder to get better results as we aspire to defend the title we won last year, ’’Musa told NAN.
NAN reports that the Tin Can Island Container (TCIC) was awarded walkover winning points over African Circle, which
did not show up for their match.
The competition, in its 9th edition, began on March 15 at the NPA Sports Ground, Surulere, Lagos.|
Six teams are participating in the tournament which promised to avoid the use of non-maritime workers as players.
(NAN)
BAO/KOLE/IGO
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(Edited by Remi Koleoso/Ijeoma Popoola)