Sports News of Wednesday, 3 February 2021
Source: www.mynigeria.com
The Miracle of Dammam also known as The Dammam Miracle is one of football's greatest comebacks. With the FIFA U20 World Cup hosted in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria's team was in the center of history.
The game was the closest the Flying Eagles came to winning the tournament that has only been won by one African nation.
Despite not winning, the team left some unforgettable memories in the hearts of football fans.
Nigeria qualified out of Group A ahead of Czechoslovakia and Saudi Arabia but were behind Portugal who topped the table.
The West Africans were seeded against the Soviet Union in the last eight in what would become the biggest comeback in football, Legit reports.
The entire first-half was dominated by the Soviet Union as they put two goals past the Nigerian side through Sergei Kiriakov and Bakhva Tedeev.
According to Legit.ng, Nigeria had to substitute their goalkeeper Angus Ikeji for Emeka Amadi but that did not stop the then USSR from scoring through World Cup legend Oleg Salenko and Kiriakov.
The comeback looked impossible and the morale of the Nigeria side even suffered more damages as the team were already thinking about packing their bags home the next day from Dammam.
Two minutes after Russia's fourth goal, Christopher Ohenhen pulled one back from a long-range free-kick a minute after the hour mark.
Ohenhen even scored a better free-kick than the first from a longer range to make it 4-2 in the 75th minute.