VOLGOGRAD, June 22. /TASS/. Nigerian forward Ahmed Musa’s brace has secured a 2-0 win for his country’s team in a World Cup group stage match vs Iceland.

The game was played in the Russian southern city of Volgograd in front of a crowd on 40,904 on Friday.

Musa scored his opening goal on the 49th minute that was followed by another one on the 75th minute. At the end of the second half, the referee awarded a penalty shot to Nigeria’s net and did not change his decision even after the use of the VAR (Visual Assistant Referee) system. Iceland’s Gylfi Sigurdsoon fired his penalty over the crossbar.

Nigeria have scored the first win at the World Cup to take the second place in Group D, with three points. It was the first game lost by Iceland at World Cup tournaments. The Icelandic team finished its debut match vs Argentina in a 1-1 draw. With one point to their credit, Iceland are third in the group, ahead of Argentina, also having one point. The group’s leader are Croatia that have earned six points.

Nigeria will play its next group stage game against Argentina in St. Petersburg on June 26. Iceland will face Croatia in Rostov-on-Don on the same day.

Russia is holding its first-ever edition of the FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a spectacular opening show at the Luzhniki Stadium on the night of June 14.

A total of 32 national football teams are participating. The teams were divided into eight groups, with four in each, and the top two from their relevant groups will proceed to the next round, known as the playoffs or the knockout stage, to keep vying for the much-coveted FIFA World Cup Trophy.

Eleven host cities, namely Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara, were selected to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup.