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Men's Football: Argentina wins second consecutive gold medal in Olympic

In a match of the Men's Football Final of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0 to continue its tryst with gold medal in Olympic football.

It was second consecutive gold medal for Argentina at Olympics. A 58th minute strike by Angel Di Maria ensures Argentina to retain the title of Olympic Men's Football champions. With this victory Argentina took its revenge of Atlanta 1996 Olympics, where they lost to Nigeria by 3-2 in finals.

Peter Odemwingie of Nigeria fancied his chances to carry out the first attack on goal and attempted a long-range shot in the early sixth minutes of the game. The ball sided through Argentina's defensive wall, but Sergio Romero the Argentine goalkeeper, was equally good at his task. After four minutes, Argentine captain Juan Riquelme got a free kick from near the arc, but it didn’t work out as the ball slipped over the bar.

In the 35th minute Nigeria looked threatening when Odemwingie thrashed the ball across the face of the box. But the ball spring back the unsuspecting Nigerian captain Promise Isaac. Still Nigeria's best chance of the game came in the 63rd minute, but the effort of Victor Obinna's was well saved by Argentinean goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

Argentina’s Lionel Messi flashed the winning goal with a clean pass down the left side of the field, which was then tactically picked up by his team mate Di Maria. He simply chipped the ball over fast-approaching goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin from outside the box.

It was a well-deserved win for the Argentina, who played and won all six games and is a record winning team of 12 straight Olympic matches since the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games finals, where they lost to Nigeria.