The Nigerian Navy and the defending champions, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have qualified for the finals of the ongoing 9th Ships and Ports Maritime Cup competition holding in Lagos.
Both teams will meet on Friday (tomorrow) at the Legacy Pitch, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos in what promises to be an exciting encounter to decide the champions of this year’s competition. The teams played a 2-2 draw when they met during the opening match.
To get to the finals, Navy defeated Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) 2-1, while the Nigeria Customs defeated Josephdam 2-0 in the semifinals of the competition played on Tuesday.
In the first semi-final match, Navy came from a goal down to score two goals against hard fighting Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to book their place in the final match.
Jersey number 9, Taiwo Momoh pulled the curtain raiser by beating Navy’s goalkeeper in the 19th minute of the first half through a well taken free-kick about 30 metres away from the goal post.
In the 50th minute of the second half, jersey number 13, Mohammed Musa brought the Navy back into the game when he capitalised on a blunder on the part of the central defenders to beat NPA’s goal keeper.
Both teams struggled to out-manouvre each other with the NPA team having the upper hand but unable to convert their many chances.
Luck smiled on the Naval team as jersey number 15, Dick Precious converted a corner kick that astounded spectators.
With the goal, Navy’s hope of repeating the feat of 2009 where it won the maiden edition came alive again.
The game between Customs and Josephdam ended 2-0 in favour of Customs.
Jersey number 8, Abubakar Mikal scored the two goals in the 5th and 47th minute of the competition to nail the hope of Josephdam to play in the finals.
The final match will be played tomorrow at the Legacy Pitch, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos at 4pm.
Gate is free.
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