Real Madrid trio Angel di Maria, Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane will all be continuing their participation in the World Cup after seeing their Argentina and France sides top their respective groups yesterday.
Di Maria put in an impressive performance against Nigeria in a highly entertaining game in which the South American side came out 3-2 winners, thanks to two more goals by Leo Messi.
From the very beginning the match was end-to-end stuff, and as good as the attacking was on the day, both defences showed plenty of signs of vulnerability. Argentina took the lead after just three minutes. Angel di Maria raced into the box and his effort came back off the post. Fortunately for Argentina, Leo Messi was in the in the right place to smash the ball home.
The celebrations had barely died down when Nigeria went up the other end and equalised. Michel Babatunde fed the ball to Musa, who curled home a brilliant effort. Right on the stroke of half time Messi put Argentina in front again, scoring a brilliant free kick.
Two minutes after the restart, Nigeria were level again. Musa played a one-two with Emmanuel Emenike and slotted in his second goal of the game – the first time a Nigerian had scored two goals in a match at the World Cup. They weren’t level for long though as Argentina defender Rojo sent the ball into the back of the net off his knee from a corner just three minutes later.
Elsewhere, Benzema played the whole match for France against Ecuador but couldn’t add to his tally as they played out a 0-0 draw. Varane, who had played in the two previous matches, came off the bench in the 60th minute to secure the clean sheet.
