Rio 2016 Men's Tournament: Nigeria 5-4 Japan

Early goals from Shinzo Koroki and Takumi Minamino had kept Japan in contention before Nigeria – with Etebo seemingly at the heart of everything - moved out of sight in the second period despite Takuma Osano and Musashi Suzuki’s late efforts for Japan.

The result leaves head coach Makoto Teguramori's side rooted to the foot of Group B and needing to recover quickly ahead of Sunday’s encounter with Colombia who had earlier drawn 1-1 with Sweden.

Rio 2016 Men's Tournament: Results, Fixtures, Standings

In what was to prove a distinctly topsy-turvy first half, Japan fired the opening salvo when Ryoto Oshimi popped up at the far post to connect with Hiroki Fujiharu’s fourth minute cross only to be denied by Nigeria goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel’s fine stop.

Nigeria, Olympic champions in 1996, esponded well to that early scare, and went ahead two minutes later, Imoh Ezekiel bustled his way into the area and unleashed a shot which Japan custodian Masatoshi Kushibiki could only parry. The lurking Sadiq Umar duly converted the rebound to silence the Japanese support.

To their credit, Japan dug deep and drew level on nine minutes. Nigeria’s Stanley Amuzie brought down Takumi Minamino in the area, and from the resulting penalty, Koroki kept his calm to restore parity.

The Samurai Blue’s advantage was to last only a matter of seconds though, as Abdullahi Shehu’s pinpoint delivery from the right eluded Sei Muroya, allowing Etebo to gain control of the ball and fire home past Kushibiki.

Yet again, Japan refused to capitulate and the East Asians grabbed a second equaliser courtesy of Minamino’s expert finish from an angle on 13 minutes.

After such a whirlwind start, it was perhaps not surprising that chances were few and far between throughout the rest of the half, although it was Nigeria who would strike in the dying embers to enter the break with a slender 3-2 advantage.

Yet again, Japanese defensive frailties were to the fore as Etebo’s scuffed shot was only partly cleared, allowing the 20-year-old forward to ram home the rebound from close range.

Some six minutes after the restart, Etebo was to claim his hat-trick when he slotted home a penalty after Tsukasa Shiotani had brought down Sadiq in the box.

Things were to go from bad to worse for Japan on 65 minutes as Kushibiki’s partial clearance was fired into the net from 20 yards by the prolific Etebo with the Japanese goalkeeper out of position.

Osano, on as a 53rd minute substitute, reduced the deficit on 70 minutes by converting Fujiharu’s cross, and Suzuki netted with what proved to be the final kick of the game, but it was a case of too little too late for a Japanese side who will be left to reflect on what could have been.