EUROMATCH NPFL27: Heavy Rain Saves Niger Tornadoes From Defeat By Plateau United – Independent Newspaper Nigeria

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Chinwendu Nnadozie

Heavy downpour which started less than ten minutes to 90 minutes full time with Plateau United football club saved Niger Tornadoes from defeat in the matchday 3 of the 2026/27 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) North-Central derby.

Though both sides started well with good defensive mechanism, Jibril Ibrahim of Plateau United scored what would have been the only goal through free-kick if the rains had not destabilized the strong defence put up by the visiting Plateau United.

The keenly contested tackles was almost coming to an end at the Bako Kontagora Stadium, Minna when heavy rains started, causing visiting Plateau United to lose concentration and in the ensued confusion Bashir Musa of the home team scored an equalizer.

The Ikon Allah Boys had many opportunities in the first 45 minutes but could not convert it to goals, but the visiting opponent took advantage of their slightly loose defence to score in the first half of the encounter as the home based team’s goalkeeper Derrick Julu could not stop the free-kick.

The hosts returned for the second half with few changes, Zaka John and youngster Obalowu Nafiu being introduced to inject more pace and attacking threats which yielded desired dividends as Tornadoes increased the pressure and made several incursions into the visitors’ penalty area, but still were unable to find the equaliser until seven minutes of regulation time remaining, Bashir Musa was introduced in place of Joseph Godfrey.

The coming in of Bashir made an instant impact, he acted swiftly, scrambled inside the Plateau United box to fire home the equalizer and restored parity.

The match was almost immediately halted at exactly 84th minutes when heavy rainfall sent both players, supporters and football fans scampering for shelter forcing the match officials to reschedule the remaining minutes for Monday morning.

Upon resumption early Monday morning, botg sides tightened their defence as none could find a winning goal hence the encounter ended in 1-1.