Shanghai: Nigeria reached the Olympic football final with a 4-1 victory over Belgium, getting long-range goals from Emmanuel Ekpo and Chibuzor Okonkwo.
The 1996 Olympic champions took control on Tuesday with goals by Olubayo Adefemi and Chinedi Ogbuke Obasi.
Ekpo then scored a spectacular 30-meter shot in the 72nd and Okonkwo's 25-meter drive four minutes later went in off the post.
Belgium replied two minutes from the end with a 25-meter free kick from Laurent Ciman.
In Saturday's final at Beijing's Olympic Stadium, Nigeria will meet either Argentina or Brazil.
Although Belgium still have a chance of winning the bronze medal, their defeat means that no European team has won this title since Spain in 1992.
The game was packed with goal chances at either end with Nigeria's fast-running forwards repeatedly opening up the Belgian defence. But Belgium hit the bar and had chances to score at least twice more.
Belgium goalkeeper Logan Bailly pushed an angled shot from Ogbuke Obasi around the post before Nigeria beat him in the 17th minute.
Okonkwo's shot was half-blocked by a defender but the ball slipped through to Adefemi, whose drive went under the goalkeeper's body into the far corner.
Tom de Mul should have equalised within a minute when Belgium opened up the Nigerian defence on the right and he was left with a shot at goal at the far post. He hesitated and two defenders got back to block the shot.
After both Solomon Okoronkwo and Peter Odemwingie had both missed the target for Nigeria, Belgium squandered another clear chance a minute before halftime when lone striker Kevin Mirallas was left unmarked on the left.
But his first touch was awful and, under pressure from goalkeeper Ambruse Vanzekin, shot over the bar.
The Belgians, who came from a goal behind and down to 10 men to beat Italy 3-2 in the quarter-finals, continued to go close.
In the 54th, Moussa Dembele brilliantly retrieved a ball that seemed to be going out and pulled it back to Faris Haroun, whose shot was pushed onto the crossbar by Vanzekin.
From the corner, left back Sebastian Pocognoli's powerful low shot was blocked by the 'keeper at the foot of the post.
So it appeared cruel when Nigeria went further ahead in the 59th minute from a suspiciously offside position.
Within a minute of entering the game, substitute Victor Anichebe crossed low from the right and Ogbuke Obasi was left on his own to slide the ball past Bailly from 10 meters, the Belgian defenders with their arms raised in a vain appeal for offside.
Three minutes later Anichebe missed an easy chance when a cross from Ekpo found him at the far post, only two meters out with even the goalkeeper off his line. But the Everton striker sliced his shot wide of an empty goal.
After that came probably the goal of the competition.
When Victor Obinna collected the ball outside the area, the Belgians had plenty of men back to cover the situation. Instead, he teed up a shot from 30 meters for Ekpo and his rising drive flashed past Bailly and inside his near post.
Okonkwo made it four with a 25-meter shot that went in off the inside of the post. Ekpo almost scored his second from 30 meters but Bailly pushed it around the post with an acrobatic dive to his left.
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