{"id":81836,"date":"2026-01-19T01:26:43","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=81836"},"modified":"2026-01-19T01:26:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T01:26:43","slug":"thrillers-upsets-rock-npfl-matchday-21-as-title-race-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/19\/thrillers-upsets-rock-npfl-matchday-21-as-title-race-heats-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrillers, Upsets Rock NPFL Matchday 21 as Title Race Heats Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Samuel Adeola<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Matchday 21 of the 2025\/26 Nigeria Premier Football League produced thrilling encounters and surprise results across centres on Sunday, January 18, as the title race intensified.<\/p>\n<p>At the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Insurance FC claimed one of the biggest wins of the round, edging El-Kanemi Warriors 3-2 in a five-goal thriller.<\/p>\n<p>In Lagos, Ikorodu City maintained their strong home form with a 1-0 victory over Kwara United.<\/p>\n<p>Nasarawa United also made home advantage count, defeating Niger Tornadoes 2-1 in Lafia, while Bayelsa United extended their dominance in Yenagoa with a 2-0 win over Shooting Stars. Plateau United secured a narrow 1-0 victory against Wikki Tourist in Jos.<\/p>\n<p>In Aba, nine-time champions Enyimba FC were held to a goalless draw by a resolute Barau FC.<\/p>\n<p>The major upset of the day came in Kano, where Abia Warriors stunned Kano Pillars 1-0 at the Sani Abacha Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Rivers United strengthened their title credentials with a crucial 1-0 win over Remo Stars in Port Harcourt, a result with potential implications at the top of the table.<\/p>\n<p>Matchday 21 will conclude on Monday, January 19, with Kun Khalifat FC hosting Rangers International, while Warri Wolves face Katsina United, as the league enters a decisive phase in both the title and relegation battles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola Matchday 21 of the 2025\/26 Nigeria Premier Football League produced thrilling encounters and surprise results across centres on Sunday, January 18, as the title race intensified. At the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Insurance FC claimed one of the biggest wins of the round, edging El-Kanemi Warriors 3-2 in a five-goal thriller. In Lagos, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":81837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,175],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-81836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81838,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81836\/revisions\/81838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}