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The Naija Super 8 tournament came to a glorious end last night in Lagos with football hungry Lagos fans trooping out in their thousands go witness newly promoted Sporting Lagos defeat Remo Stars 4-2 in penalty shootouts to emerge maiden champions. Regulation time ended 1-1 before the lottery game.
This tournament packaged by the Jenkins Alumona led Flykite Productions has reawakened interests of fans in the domestic club football with massive organization and funding. For the first time in decades, the refurbished Mobolaji Johnson Arena at Onikan witnessed a massive turn out of fans to see the two teams in the final. Fans outside the stadium outnumbered ticket holders thus forcing many to go and watch the epic final on televisions at home.
In the match proper, fans were well entertained by both sides with neither of the two clubs able to break each other’s formation but the first shot on goal was by Remo Stars in the 18th minute when Franck Muawena’s half volley forced Sporting Lagos goal keeper, Christian Nwoke to stretch full length to ward off the threat.
Towards the final quarter of the first half, Sporting Lagos regained domination, leaving their fans with a lot to cheers and confident of a winning.
On resumption from the break, the Lagos side looked more adventurous and Aliu Salawudeen fired home in the 52nd minute from a rebound from the upright. Sporting had another opportunity to extend the lead but Salawudeen failed to connect a rebound with goalkeeper Kayode Bankole off his line.
Remo Stars took charge in the final quarter and pushed for the much-needed equaliser. They actually got a goal which the referee ruled offside, leading to a minor altercation on the field.
However, Remo Stars got the equaliser in the 94th minute through Adams Olamilekan who fired home from a close range after a goal-mouth tussle.
The match went into a spot kick as Junior Lokosa who just joined Sporting Lagos set the pace with a ferocious shot that beat Bankole in goal for Remo Stars but the captain of Remo Stars, Junior Nduka, missed his kick-to-hand advantage to Sporting Lagos.
The shootout ended as Sporting Lagos went ahead to win the exercise 4-2 and cart home the N25 million prize money of the maiden edition of Naija Super 8.
