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This friendly between Scotland and Nigeria took place on Wednesday 17 April 2002 at Pittodrie in Scotland at 8pm. The teams that played in the match are shown below:
 
The Nigerian starting team was Ejide, Sodje, Yobo, Okoronkwo, Christopher, Okocha, Ejiofor, Utaka, Kanu, Aghahowa, Ogbeche

The Scotland starting team was Douglas, Stockdale, Weir, Dailly, Crainey, Williams, McNaughton, Lambert, Gemmill, Thompson, McCann
 
 
This game showed that the Nigerian team are a very strong skilful team and highlights further that England are in the toughest group at the World Cup 2002. Nigeria were good at holding onto the ball and attacking and they had many chances in the game - they were better than a young Scotland team over the 90 minutes (even though they were missing Celestine Babayaro, Finidi George, Taribo West and Sunday Oliseh).

Scotland were the stronger team earlier in the game and Stephen Crainey had the first good chance for Scotland but he shot straight at the keeper. After 7 minutes, Scotland did take advantage of Nigeria's defensive weaknesses to score first - Okoronkwo gave away a corner and the unmarked Dailly headed in the resulting corner kick from Gemmill. Kanu then had a couple of good chances for Nigeria but Douglas saved one and Kanu put the other one over the bar from an Okocha free kick.

Nigeria were getting stronger as they were making less errors and they equalised after 40 minutes - Sodje's pass was not cleared properly by Crainey who put the ball across his own box - the ball went to Aghahowa who hit the ball into the net from short range. Ogbeche had a good chance to put Nigeria ahead before the break but Douglas saved well.

In the 69th minute of the match, Nigeria did take a deserved lead - Okocha hit a long pass to substitute Ikedia who put over a precise cross for Aghahowa to head in his second goal. McCann had a couple of good chances in the second half for Scotland and Aghahowa had a chance for his hatrick but headed over the bar.

One of the more memorable moments in this game was the somersault celebrations from Aghahowa when he scored - Nigeria's 2-1 win will also be remembered for showing that they will not be easily overrun by anyone in the World Cup this summer.

Click here to see how England beat Paraguay 4-0 on the same night.