Nigeria's U-23 Eagles on Sunday at the Abuja National Stadium labored to a 3-2 win over their Ghanaian counterparts in an Olympic Games qualifying match on Sunday afternoon.

Nigeria drew first blood as early as the 2nd minute through Italy based Obinna Nsofor.

Ghana's Meteors pulled back immediately through Prince Tagoe, just two minutes after Nsofor scored.

On the dot of fifteen minutes, Asamoah Gyan curled a free kick behind the reach of the Nigerian goalkeeper, Ambrose Vanzekin to put the Ghanaians ahead but it was Nsofor again was equalized for Nigeria through a penalty kick.

Captain, Promise Isaac was hacked down in the box and the referee promptly awarded a penalty that Nsofor coolly tucked home.

After that it was Nigeria all the way with Isaac initiating most of the Eagles' attacks with support from Chinedu Ogbuke, Solomon Okoronkwo, Obinna Nsofor and Dele Adeleye but at the end of forty five minutes scores remained at 2-2.

At the restart, Solomon Okoronkwo scored in the 51st minute and scores remained 3-2 until full time.

Ghana's meteors launched a series of raids on the Nigerian area but could not get behind the defense for an equalizer.

"My boys did well and I am happy they were able to rise to the occasion, especially when we were down," Samson Siasia said after the match.

"The only problem is that they had not played real matches together so it was going to be difficult to get the perfect blend."

Siasia however said with optimism that the team will be near perfect by the time they play South Africa in August.

"I want to believe that by then we would have played a lot of friendly matches to help the boys understand themselves even more."

Ghana's Hamani Dramane was red carded in the 53rd minute while Nigeria's Solomon Okoronkwo got a yellow card at the same time.