Nigeria emerged as the winner of the 2024 Manitoba African Cup of Nations after walloping their neighbouring country Ghana 4-0 in the final game at the Princess Auto Stadium on Aug. 4.

Nigeria and Ghana appeared in the game in their national colours. Nigeria wore green and white while Ghana wore
red, gold and green colours.

The game commenced on a good note for both teams as they exercised caution. Ghana had a glorious opportunity
to take the lead in the 3rd minute, but the chance was blown wide by the attacker.

The teams kept stitching passes together in search of the opening goal and that was fulfilled by Nigeria, through a
defense splitting pass to slot home the ball in the 17th minute. It was an easy task for Nigeria to open the score.

Two minutes later, Nigeria worked their way out of Ghana’s defense to tear it apart and curl home the second goal
in the 19th minute.

Ghana tried to halve the deficit in the 33rd minute, but their player failed to put the ball into the net after
succumbing to Nigeria’s goalkeeper. Ghana’s call for a possible penalty was swept aside by the referee.

The first half ended with two unanswered goals for Nigeria.

Both teams played their usual game pattern from the commencement of the second half, but Nigeria intensified
their approach to increase their goal tally to three in the 54th minute. It was a cool finish for Nigeria after one of
their attackers intercepted a pass close to Ghana’s box and lofted it over the goalkeeper.

Trailing by three goals, Ghana tried to stage comebacks but were unsuccessful in those moments.

In the 75th minute, Nigeria compounded the woes of Ghana by capitalizing on a defensive blunder to score the
fourth goal.

The remaining minutes were reduced to a practice session for Nigerians as Ghana were left chasing shadows.

The game wrapped up with four goals for Nigeria, which propelled them to the winning seat as champions of the
2024 Manitoba African Cup of Nations.