A drab World Cup Group F encounter between Iran and Nigeria ended goalless in Curitiba.
The West Africans looked the more likely to make the breakthrough, but clear cut chances on the whole were few and far between.
A drab World Cup Group F encounter between Iran and Nigeria ended goalless in Curitiba.
The West Africans looked the more likely to make the breakthrough, but clear cut chances on the whole were few and far between.
Nigeria, who are the African champions, started with Lazio’s” data-scaytid=”3″>Lazio’s Ogenyi Onazi in their line-up and also fielded Premier League duo Jon Obi Mikel and Victor Moses.
Iran boss Carlos Queiroz meanwhile included English-based duo Reza Ghoochennejhad and Ashkan Dejagah in his starting 11.
Nigeria began on the front foot and forced the Asian side into some early last ditch defending. They had the ball in the net as early as the seventh minute following a corner, but Chelsea midfielder Mikel was harshly adjudged to have fouled Iranian goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi.
Onazi also steered a shot narrowly wide in an opening period played entirely in the Iran half.
The pattern continued throughout the half as Stephen Keshi’s side continued to probe without any cutting edge and Iran held firm while offering very little going forward.
10 minutes before the break, however, Queiroz’s men almost had the lead when Ghoochannejad headed Dejagah’s corner goalwards, but previously redundant Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama saved from point blank range.
The second half continued in similar vein to the one that preceded it, though Iran did enjoy a larger territorial share of the action.
It was, however, a drab affair on the whole with the Africans failing in any way to build up a head of steam as they threatened to do in the opening minutes of the match.
Both Coaches used up their substitute allocations but it was to no avail as Iran looked happy to settle for a point and Nigeria lacked the quality or guile to do anything about it.
Nigeria substitute Shola Ameobi had a late goalbound header easily cleared away in what was the best chance of the second period.
The result of this disappointing stalemate means the World Cup now has both its first draw and goalless match.
With matches against Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina to come, neither side will be fancied to progress to the Last 16.
Iran 0 – 0 Nigeria
Iran: Haghighi, Heydari (Shojaei 89), Haji Safi, Hosseini, Sadeghi, Nekounam (c), Teymourian, Montazeri, Ghoochannejad, Dejagah (Jahanbakhsh 78), Pooladi.
Nigeria: Enyeama (c), Ambrose, Oshaniwa, Oboabona, Omeruo, Mikel, Onazi, Azeez (Odemwingie 69), Musa, Moses (Ameobi 52), Emenike.
Referee: Carlos Vera (Ecuador)