Nigeria will face familiar foe Slovakia in the quarter-final of the Men’s Division Two at the ongoing Liebherr World Team Table Tennis Championships on Friday in Sweden.
This follows their 3-1 win over Spain in the round of 16 tie on Thursday. The trio of Aruna Quadri, Segun Toriola and Bode Abiodun were in action on Table 11.
Quadri Aruna came from a game down to beat Carlos Machado 3-1 (13-15, 12-10, 11-4, 11-4) to put Nigeria 1-0 up. However, Toriola couldn’t consolidate on the advantage losing 0-3 to Alvaro Robles. He lost 11-13, 5-11, 10-12 as Spain levelled it up 1-1.
Abiodun made it 2-1 for Nigeria in the third match with a 3-0 win (12-10, 12-10, 11-6) over Jesus Cantero. Aruna ensured Nigeria made it through to the quarter-finals of the Men’s Division two with a 3-1 win over Alvaro Robles. The former champion once again dropped a game but did enough to seal the victory for Nigeria (13-11, 3-11, 11-2, 11-7).
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Both teams met in the group stage but it was the Slovakians who emerged champions beating Nigeria 3-1, their only loss so far in the competition.
Quarter-final pairing now complete:
Ukraine v Denmark
Netherlands v Iran
Italy v Hungary
Nigeria v Slovakia
