Ahmed Musa was stuck on the bench when Nigeria rolled out to play their opening World Cup fixture against Croatia.

Musa was introduced in the second half when Croatia had accomplished their mission with the scores flashing 2-0 in favour of the European team. Chelsea’s Moses, Alex Iwobi and Odion Ighalo were preferred by Gernot Rohr ahead of the experience former Leicester man now at CSKA.

Nigeria looked ordinary against Croatia and became a laughing lot on social media and pundits had little hope for them.

The West African side were presented with Iceland who stopped Lionel Messi and his Argie team in the group opening match.

Nobody seemed to give them chance against Iceland – the smallest country to grace the world cup. Guess who steps up to break the iron men from the waters. Ahmed Musa with a brilliantly executed goal of the double he had for the night, turns out the forgotten hero who saves Gernot Rohr’s blushes to keep their hopes of staying in Russia beyond the group stages if they replicate the form against Argentina.

It is high time Argentina coaches balanced their squads by providing space for experienced players as it has proved with Jorgi Sampaoli who suffered defeat after ringing massive changes in his team by ignoring Di Maria, Ever Banega, Lucas Biglia and Paulo Dybala.

By Ashraf Habib