Football / World Cup USA '94: Bulgarians are no match for Nigeria

NIGERIA showed that their reputation as a team to fear is fully deserved, with a brilliant 3-0 Group D victory over Bulgaria in Dallas on Tuesday night. The speed, skill and power of the African champions' forwards were awesome, though their defence looked suspect.

Their attitude was also refreshingly positive, on their first appearance in the finals. 'Maybe the next match we will lose. It doesn't matter,' their Dutch coach, Clemens Westerhof, said. 'We came here to entertain people who pay money to watch football.'

Rashidi Yekini, their top marksman, opened the scoring by sliding the ball in from close range in the 21st minute. With the drums beating in the stands, Daniel Amokachi added a second just before half-time. Emmanuel Amunike, the man whose two goals against Zambia won the African Nations' Cup final earlier this year, added the third nine minutes into the second half.

Bulgaria created several first-half chances, and Hristo Stoichkov had a superbly-struck free-kick ruled out because the referee had awarded an indirect kick.