Greatest Games: Nigeria 4 Brazil 3, 1996

The Blizzard

On this week's episode of Greatest Games, Colin Udoh has chosen to discuss Nigeria's 1996 Olympic Games semi-final win over Brazil with Jonathan Wilson and Marcus Speller.

For Brazil, Olympic gold continued to elude them, hence the strength of the squad they boasted for this tournament – Dida, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo and Juninho all started this match, Rivaldo would come off the bench. It wouldn't be until they hosted the Olympics in 2016 when they finally won their first Men's final.

Meanwhile, many of Nigeria's Dream Team were already established names after their enthralling appearance at the USA '94 World Cup, having been knocked out by two extremely late goals from Italy's Roberto Baggio.
However, no one would have anticipated what they'd achieve at the 1996 Olympics, especially with the calibre of opposition – and the players chosen for those sides – in front of them.

About the panel:

Jonathan Wilson founded The Blizzard in 2011 and is editor of the magazine. He’s contributed to numerous publications including the Guardian and Sports Illustrated as well as having authored Behind the Curtain, Inverting the Pyramid, The Outsider, Angels with Dirty Faces and most recently The Names Heard Long Ago, among others.

Marcus Speller is a host of the Football Ramble podcast as well as Answerable Questions with Questionable Answers. Marcus also regularly hosts our live Q&A events across the country alongside Jonathan.

Colin Udoh is a journalist from Nigeria, a contributor to ESPN, The Blizzard an many more outlets and was previously the press officer to the Nigeria national team.
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