10 April 2011
Nigeria had no troubles reaching the next round of the 2012 London Olympics qualifying tournament after a hat-trick by Warri Wolves striker Ekigho Ehiosun earned Dream Team V a comfortable 4-1 win at Malabo.
Nigeria thus qualified for the next stage of the qualifiers slated for June on a 9-1 aggregate.
On a weekend that big guns Ghana and Cameroon were eliminated from the London Olympics, Ehiosun scored the opening goal on 29 minutes, when he tucked away the rebound of a penalty kick by Danny Uchechi.
In first-half stoppage time, Uchechi made up for his earlier miss when he scored the second goal just before Ghanaian referee William Agbovi signalled for half time.
The energetic Ehiosun made it 3-0 for Nigeria after 64 minutes when he rounded up the goalkeeper to score. He would repeat this six minutes later after Gbolahan Salami missed what looked a certain goal.
The hosts pulled a goal back in the 72nd minute when Augustin hit a 20-yard shot that gave Nigeria goalkeeper Dele Ajiboye no chance.
Ehiosun scored one of the five goals that sunk Equatorial Guinea a fortnight ago.
He was also on target on his Eagles debut against Sierra Leone in February.
After the second round which comes up in June, the eight winners would do battle at a match venue for a final qualifying tournament between December 2 and 18.
The top three teams from this competition will then fly Africas flag at the 2012 Olympics in London.
