Nigeria looked promising in the early stages of the match with a couple of forays forward when they sniffed a chance. Iheanacho and Musa always looked to get forward while Oghenekaro Etebo even managed to get a couple of shots off.
But Messi’s goal seemed to deflate them and they suddenly looked nervy in possession. Even when Javier Mascherano lost the ball in a deep position, they failed to take advantage, hanging on to the ball for too long and allowing the Argentine midfielder to make the tackle and make up for his error.
As wing-backs, Victor Moses and Brian Idowu failed to create chances from out wide and were pegged back a lot by Argentina. Since Argentina played a three-man midfield, Mikel was also unable to stamp his authority. It resulted in long balls to the Nigerian forwards who were easily dealt with since the South American side were sitting back and not playing a high line.
But they were lucky to win a penalty – all thanks to Mascherano’s stupidity in the box. Victor Moses did not even need a run-up to convert the spot-kick to make it 1-1. Once they realised a draw was good enough, Nigeria sat back and frustrated Argentina by closing all the gaps in passing channels and starving the likes of Di Maria and Higuain of any service whatsoever.
Without any space to run into, Di Maria was effectively neutralised and he was substituted in the 72nd minute – probably a little too late – by Sampaoli. But Nigeria couldn’t hold on for 90 minutes.