NPFL: Doma United and Sporting Lagos Battle to a Goalless Draw in Match Day Three Encounter

In a tightly contested match in Match Day three of the Nigeria Premier Football League Season, Doma United managed to secure a hard-fought goalless draw against Sporting Lagos. The encounter took place at the Sporting Lagos home ground, New Mobolaji Johnson Arena, Lagos leaving fans entertained until the final whistle.

Both teams went into the game with the intention of continuing their impressive starts to the season. Doma United, fresh off a 2-0 home victory against Bayelsa United, were eager to build on their success. Meanwhile, Sporting Lagos, one of the newcomers to the league, held Akwa United to a goalless draw in their previous outing.

Sporting Lagos came out of the gate with high energy, creating several scoring opportunities in the opening 20 minutes of the match. However, Doma United’s resolute defence managed to keep the hosts at bay and deny them early goals.

Doma United’s first significant chance came when Usman Musa executed a short corner kick with Saifullahi, who delivered the ball into the box for Kazeem. Unfortunately, Kazeem failed to maintain control, and Sporting Lagos managed to clear the danger.

Kazeem later broke through Sporting Lagos’ defence, firing a shot that nearly beat the keeper. The goalkeeper fumbled the ball but was fortunate that no Doma United player was able to capitalize on the rebound.

On the other end of the field, Kingdom, Doma United’s goalkeeper, was outstanding throughout the game. He made a series of saves, notably, he made a brilliant save, but the ball spilt back to Sporting Lagos’ striker, whose rebound was cleared off the line by Haruna Aliyu.

Doma United continued to press, creating some promising opportunities as Charles raced past his marker and delivered a pass to the charging Abubakar. However, Abubakar’s shot was blocked, and the ball fell to Kazeem, whose subsequent attempt was also thwarted before he took a rebound shot that, once again, was cleared off the line.

The best chance of the game fell to Charles Terwar, who was left unmarked in a dangerous position, but his attempted shot was gathered comfortably by the vigilant Sporting Lagos goalkeeper.

In a game that could have swung in either team’s favour, both sides missed crucial opportunities, which will surely leave them ruing their missed chances.

At the end of the game, Coach Akinade remarked that he was satisfied with the performance of his team “With this result I am very impressed with them. Their performance is so good for me.”

The gaffer however ruined some the chances his side missed “We created some goal-scoring opportunities but we were not able to convert them. I think we are going back home to work on our goal-scoring. We had some very good chances. I don’t know why we couldn’t bury three or four chances like that. We need to go back to the drawing board and start working on the goal-scoring.”

Substitutions were made by both teams in an attempt to change the game’s dynamics. For Doma United, Hillary Ekawu and Usman Musa made way for Daniel Simon Adoga and Bidemi Owoku, while Babas Theophilus replaced Charles Terwar.

The match saw several players receiving bookings, including Haruna Aliyu, Abubakar Abdullahi, Samuel Matthew, Andrew Majalisa, and even Doma United’s Coach Akinade Onigbinde.

Doma United’s next fixture in the Nigeria Premier Football League is at home against the defending champions Enyimba Football Club.