ETISALAT , MTN IN EPIC NTG FINAL CLASH

ETISALAT , MTN IN EPIC FINAL CLASH

The stage is set for the final match of the football event of the biggest sporting event in the telecoms industry – the Nigeria telecoms games(NTG).Will Etisalat retain their title and join MTN as the second team to successfully defend the title or will MTN avenge last years defeat and reclaim the title they won back to back in 2011,2012………..

Osere Osunbor’s lone strike made the big difference last year as Etisalat Nigeria won the 2013 Nigeria Telecommunications Games (NTG) dethroning MTN Nigeria, winners of the first two editions in 2011 and 2012.

Now the 0809ja Boys are warming up for their title brace when they confront their arch rivals, the Yhello Boys in Sunday’s finals of the fourth edition of the tournament.

CEO of MediaVision Limited, organisers of NTG, Fela Bank-Olemoh, looked back to the start of the tournament and commended all the teams for their gallantry. “We have had a very fantastic run thus far and what has been outstanding is the sportsmanship our teams have exhibited and also the level of mastery of their games from athletics, chess, scrabble, tennis and table tennis to football”.

This edition has thrown up lots of statistics and MTN’s Alichie Ihekwumere tops the list on the goal scorers’ chart with five goals and is separated by two goals from Airtel’s Wale Bakare and Etisalat’s Andrew Enebeli.

Etisalat accounts for ten of the 29 goals scored during the group stages while MTN scored nine of those goals. David Ore of Etisalat with two goals has the highest number of assists with three provided for his team mates.

Again, it is MTN’s Alichie that tied with Ore on this stats board as he also provided three assists while netting five goals. Depending on the strength of MTN in this final Ore and Kasim Yakubu stand a chance of snatching the hotshot award if they can add to their two goals tally.

But this fixture has all the trappings of a grudge match as MTN are not only seeking to reclaim the trophy they lost narrowly last year but would want to avenge the 2-0 defeat they endured on Match Day 2 against Etisalat. Andrew Enebeli nicked both goals that was the second loss on the trot by MTN after their opening day shocking loss to Airtel.

MTN started off with an indifferent form and following the double loss to Airtel and Etisalat, they recharged and won the two remaining fixtures against Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson but it was their 5-1 trouncing on Ericsson that proved very remarkable. At that point, MTN had just three points trailing Airtel and Ericsson at six points and needed a win and two goals to frog-leap Airtel. They did in style, hitting five past Ericsson.

On the other hand, Etisalat has an intimidating run through the group stages, winning all their games and with good scores to impose their title holder status on all.

With the earlier victory against MTN, the Cup holders enjoy a psychological boost but again, the pressure may be on them to equal MTN’s records just as they may become lax in the belief that they have done it before.

It promises to be an interesting final which will also feature the third place play-off between Ericsson and Airtel.Airtel will go into this match with a determination to avenge a tournament defining 1-2 loss to Lm ericsson in the 3rd place match. while Lm ericsson will not only want to confirm their superiority over Airtel in 2014 but also want to erase the memory of their third place loss to Alcatel Lucent last season.

while medals will be presented to winners in the other events including the overall winners trophy which has already been won by MTN with seven gold medals, two more than Etisalat