St. Petersburg (Russia), June 27 : A late goal from Marcos Rojo gave Argentina a 2-1 triumph over Nigeria in their final Group D match here on Tuesday as the two-time champions entered the FIFA World Cup pre-quarterfinals.
Rojo scored the winner for Argentina in the 86th minute after Victor Moses' penalty conversion in the 51st minute had cancelled out Lionel Messi's strike in the 14th minute.
Following the win, Argentina have four points in total and they are second in the table, behind Croatia, who have nine points. The other two teams in the group, Nigeria (three points) and Iceland (one point) have crashed out of the tournament.
Argentina, who were on the brink of elimination after playing a draw against Iceland before a disastrous 0-3 defeat to Croatia in their first two matches, started the match against Nigeria with one point in their bag. They knew that despite a win against Nigeria, who were also in contention, their spot in the Round-of-16 is not guaranteed as Croatia, who had already qualified, played Iceland.
Argentina head coach Jorge Sampaoli, who had got a lot of stick for his formation of the team in the first two matches, fielded a classic 4-4-2 formation, featuring wholesale changes to their starting 11 comparing with the game against Croatia when they lost 0-3.
Argentina showed a lot of urgency, both up front and at the back as they began to prowl inside the Nigerian box from the start. Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria pressed high on Nigeria's box as they looked to make the best of their first appearances in the starting XI.
It took only 14 minutes for the Argentines to break the deadlock. Messi controlled with his thigh a long-range aerial ball from the centre of the pitch from Ever Banega before barging into the box and firing to the left corner of the net despite being pushed towards the right side by Kenneth Omeruo. Banega, who was not there in the starting XIs so far, had already repaid Sampaoli's faith.
Messi then provided a delectable bass from the right with a cross which put Gonzalo Higuain on one-one-one situation with goalkeeper Francis Uzoho but the Juventus centre-forward couldn't overcome the Nigerian goalminder in the 27th minute.
The Argentina captain almost doubled the lead when Angel Di Maria won a free kick 25 yards from the Nigerian goal on the left for Argentina in the 33rd minute after being fouled by Leon Balogun. Messi's left-footed shot hit the post after Francis Uzoho made a left-handed touch.
Both sides didn't create a lot of chances during the rest of time in the first half, with Nigeria hardly testing Argentinian goalkeeper Franco Armani, who as brought into the playing XI in place of Willy Caballero.
Four minutes into the second half, Nigeria were awarded a penalty after veteran holding midfielder Mascherano was penalised for holding Balogun inside the box while defending a corner. Chelsea winger Moses fired the spot-kick to the left as Armani dived to the wrong side.
Argentina lacked control in the middle of the pitch and Nigeria's confidence got higher and higher as they tested the former's resolves with several incursions inside the box.
Armani was later tested by a piledriver from Wilfred Ndidi from 25 yards out as the ball went over the cross-bar. Another chance came Nigeria's way as Odion Ighalo missed a golden opportunity to score on the volley after Rojo's header fell on his shoulder and moved towards the African attacker. Seeing the ball way off target, Ighalo later appealed for a handball penalty but the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) thought it otherwise in the 75th minute.
Nigeria's hopes fizzled in the 87th minute when Gabriel Mercado galloped down the right flank and sent a cross to the middle of the box. Rojo met the cross on the volley as his right-footed strike sent the ball to the right corner of the net to give Argentina the 2-1 lead.
Afterwards, Argentina, somehow, managed to hand on to their lead as they secured a spot in the second round.
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New Delhi, Nov 5: The mega auction ahead of the Indian Premier League 2025 will be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on November 24 and 25, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.
This is the second successive year the auction is being held overseas as Dubai hosted the previous one ahead of the IPL 2024.
The player registration officially closed on Monday and a total of 1,574 cricketers (1,165 Indian and 409 overseas) have been signed up for the auction, which will clash with the third and fourth day’s play of the first Test between India and Australia in Perth, which begins on November 22.
Each franchise will be able to form a maximum squad of 25 players (including respective retained players), and a total of 204 slots will be up for grabs from the auction.
The list includes 320 capped players, 1,224 uncapped players and 30 players from the Associate Nations.
Among capped players, 48 are from India. Moreover, 965 uncapped players of the country will also be part of the auction.
This year’s auction will feature some high-profile India stars such as Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and Arshdeep Singh.
The 10 franchises will collectively have around Rs 641.5 crore to spend for the available 204 slots.
Out of those 204 slots, 70 are earmarked for overseas players.
As of now, 46 players have been retained by the 10 franchises with cumulative expenditure of Rs 558.5 crore.
Each franchise was allocated Rs 120 crore to build their squads but after the retention process, which was announced on October 31, Punjab Kings have the biggest purse -- Rs 110.5 crore.
The Punjab outfit retained just two uncapped players -- Shashank Singh and Prabhsimran Singh for Rs 9.5 crore.
Rajasthan Royals, under Sanju Samson, have the smallest purse of Rs 41 crore after retaining six players.
The Kolkata Knight Riders have also retained six players but they have a remaining purse of Rs 51 crore.