Liberia surprisingly lost 1-0 to Cape Verde on Sunday to leave its chances of a maiden World Cup appearance hanging in the balance.
The Lone Star has now lost two of their four games in Group C to sit five points behind Nigeria, who have nine points.
Ryan Mended scored the winner in the 90th minute in Praia with a close range shot after a melee in Lone Star’s goalmouth at the Stadium Aderito Sena.
Both sides failed to take their chances in a scrappy encounter in a Sunday fternoon game that was characterized by poor finishing in front of goal.
Jeffry Fortes had the only chance in the first 20 minutes, in a dull start to the game. The De Graafschap defensive midfielder found a pocket of space inside the area in the ninth minute of the encounter but could only manage to direct a tame effort straight at Tommy Songo.
The Blue Sharks struggled to find any room on the pitch and as a result Liberia first effort at goal only came in the 28th minute of the match. Kpah Sherman split the Cape Verde defence but the attacker was unable to produce the finishing touch.
The first half ended goalless with both sides having to reflect on a poor first 45.
Liberia had an opportunity to open the scoring in the 55th minute of the match.Alen Njie, though, was unable to get on the end of a Murphy Dorley cross.
Nuno Barges should’ve given the Blue Sharks a second five minutes later when he opened up the defence only to fire against the post from a tight angle.
Moussa Sanoh had two opportunities to open the scoring for Lone Star on the 68th minute.The striker could only manage to head wide from close range from a Prince Balde cross before failing to hit the target with a curling effort after slicing through the Dube Birds defence minutes later.
The Blue Sharks were out firing in the closing stages of the match and went ahead after a goalmouth melee that saw Mendes collecting the ball, and cushioned it at the back of the net 90 minutes gone.
Cape Verde survived a late scare just before the end of the match as Kofa Williams totally miscued his effort with only the goalkeeper to beat.
