Germany advances to the Gold Medal Match of the Olympic men’s soccer tournament.
In the second semifinal of the Olympic men’s soccer tournament, Germany bested Nigeria 2-0.
To start the match, Germany had the better run of play and found a goal early on to take the lead.
In the 8th minute, Maximilian Meyer sent in a cross that beat Nigerian goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel and found Lukas Klostermann for a tap-in goal to put Germany up 1-0.
Germany nearly gave up its lead four minutes later as German goalkeeper Timo Horn mishit the ball, giving Nigeria’s Sadiq Umar a great look at the goal. However, Horn came up with a save.
In the 20th minute, Nigeria’s Daniel made a huge stop on a Lars Bender shot from point blank range to keep his side’s deficit at one.
Samson Siasia
It looked like Nigeria captain John Obi Mikel was going to equalize in the 31st minute as he made two defenders miss in the box, but his shot was blocked at the last minute by Matthais Ginter.
The teams went into halftime with Germany leading 1-0.
In the second half, there was little separating Germany and Nigeria.
In the 89th minute, Germany’s Davie Selke sent the ball toward the far post that Nils Petersen deflected into the back of the net to double his team’s lead. With the goal, Petersen ties teammate Serge Gnabry for the tournament lead in goals with six.
Germany maintained its lead through stoppage time as it earned a 2-0 victory.
Germany recorded 12 total shots, five on goal compared to Nigeria’s 12 total shots, two on goal.
Germany advances to the Gold Medal Match where it will face Brazil on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 4:30 p.m. ET. Nigeria will play Honduras in the Bronze Medal Match on Saturday, Aug. 20 at 12:00 p.m. ET.
