Lagos – The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Wednesday released its FIFA World Cup programme for the Super Eagles amidst applauses and commendation for good planning and focus.
The programme reveals that Super Eagles will play Poland, Serbia, Congo DR, England, Czech Republic and possibly Chile on the way to the World Cup finals in Russia.
The team’s first phase camping will hold in Abuja or Uyo between May 22 and 30, while the second phase camping will hold at a health resort in Austria June 3 to 11.
The close camp at the Super Eagles’ official World Cup team base camp is at Yessentuki, Stavropol Territory in Russia’s southern region, starting June 11.
The Super Eagles have been drawn against Argentina, Iceland and Croatia in Group D at the World Cup beginning June 14 in Russia.
X-raying the friendly matches, INDEPENDENT took into recognition the strength of the teams in the group.
Nigeria will play Poland in Warsaw on March 23 and four days later, March 27, will play Serbia in London.
On May 28, football fans in Nigeria will have opportunity to see the team before the World Cup begins as they will take on Congo DR in either Abuja or Uyo and will play England on June 2 in London.
On June 6, the team will take on Czech Republic in Austria and three days later will take on Chile also in Austria.
When the draw was made on December 3, Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr, reacted with cautious optimism.
The coach said he believes Nigeria would have a good start to the competition if they get a favourable result against Croatia in the group’s opening game on June 16.
“It’s the first game and if we start well we can have a chance to go through. Croatia will be the most important game because they have technical quality and play very good football.
“At the moment, they are one of the best teams in Europe and beat Greece 4-1 in the play-offs so we have to be prepared and ready for them.”
According to Rohr, if the Super Eagles win their first game in the group, it will ease the pressure and help them against Iceland in the second game.
This will be Nigeria’s sixth World Cup appearance– and their third in a row. The Super Eagles have reached the last 16 three times – 1994, 1998 and 2014 – but have never advanced beyond that stage.
Captain John Mikel Obi is the most experienced member of the squad with 80 caps and will be a key figure for the Super Eagles in Russia. This will be the former Chelsea midfielder’s second World Cup – the 30-year-old helped the team reach the knockout stages in 2014 for the first time since 1998. He now plays in China with Tianjin Teda.
Rohr has managed all over the world. From Nice to Gabon, Burkina Faso to Nigeria, the 64-year-old German has extensive experience. Rohr played at Bayern Munich and Bordeaux. He then coached Bordeaux when they lost to Bayern in the 1996 UEFA Cup final.
His previous managerial jobs also include French club Nantes, Young Boys Berne in Switzerland, Tunisian side Etoile du Sahel and the Niger national team.
Argentina have won the World Cup twice – in 1978 and 1986 – and have been runners-up on three occasions, in 1930, 1990 and in Brazil in 2014, when they lost 1-0 to Germany in the final.
The team’s key player is Lionel Messi, who has been voted the best player in the world on five occasions, scored a hat trick in the last round of the South American qualifying series against Ecuador to take Argentina to the finals.
Coach Jorge Sampaoli guided Chile to the Copa America in 2015, became Argentina boss in May 2017 and succeeded in his first task – to ensure Argentina qualified for the World Cup when at a point it incredibly looked as if they were in danger of missing out.
Iceland on the other hand, will be the smallest nation at the competition with a population of less than 350,000. Iceland are heading to their first World Cup after victory over Kosovo on October 9 secured their place in Russia. This is clearly a golden era for the Icelanders after they reached Euro 2016, where they memorably defeated England in their second-round tie before losing 5-2 against hosts France in the quarterfinals.
The team’s key player is Everton’s Gylfi Sigurdsson. The 28-year-old midfielder scored the opening goal against Kosovo and is a superb striker of the ball from long range.
Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, 50, is a dentist who was in joint charge of the team in France alongside Swedish veteran Lars Lagerback. Hallgrimsson took sole charge after Euro 2016 and presided over a successful qualification campaign. Nigeria will play Iceland on Friday, June 22
The Group’s opponent, Croatia gained admission to FIFA in June 1993, meaning they were too late to compete for a place at the finals in the United States in 1994.
However, they qualified for the finals at the first time of asking at France 98 and have reached all but one of the five tournaments since. Their best performance to date remains their first, when Davor Suker, Zvonimir Boban et al helped them to a third place finish after losing to hosts and eventual winners France in the semis.
Luka Modric is the creative force at the heart of the Croatian side. Blessed with superb touch and vision, the 32-year-old has won the Champions League three times with Real Madrid. He recently clocked up a century for his country, for whom he has scored 12 times.
Zlatko Dalic’s reign as Croatia national team boss has been short and sweet thus far. He only took over in October 2017, replacing Ante Cacic, who left with one qualifying game left and the country at serious risk of failing to make the play-offs.
Dalic led Croatia to a 2-0 win in Ukraine in his first game in charge to seal a play-off spot, where they dispatched Greece 4-1 on aggregate. A midfielder in his playing days, he spent the first seven years of this decade coaching in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Nigeria versus Croatia will come up on Saturday, June 16 at Kaliningrad stadium.
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Olusade Adesola praised the NFF for the well –tailored, programme, saying, “ This is commendable. I see a lot of excitement among the leaders of the football community and I am equally enamoured by the clear–cut nature of the World Cup plan,” he said.
“So far, I want to believe that the friendly matches are good for the team considering the strength of teams in Group D. The matches will help to shape up the team for the World Cup,” said ex-international, Taiwo Oloyede.
For former Team Manager of defunct Julius Berger FC of Lagos, Mactony Taiwo, the teams lined up for the friendly matches will give the Super Eagles a solid preparation for the World Cup.
“Poland is not a push over team likewise Czech Republic and Serbia. So I think the NFF is in the right direction with the friendly matches.
“But the players must take it lightly to avoid injuries which could prevent them from playing at the World Cup,” Taiwo advised.
Ex-international, Mutiu Adepoju said: “A good development for the country and the team. Matches like those lined up will really shape up the players for the big tasks expected at the World Cup.
“They must however take things easy as the purpose of friendly matches is not always to win but to prepare a team for an important task such as the World Cup.”
Former Secretary General of the NFF, Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi was also in full support of the World Cup plan for the team and urged the leadership of the NFF to continue to encourage and boost the morale of the players and coaches.
“From now on, NFF officials should as a matter of fact continue to encourage and boost the morale of the players and officials.
“Monitoring the friendly matches is also very important. The matches are good for the team and it will really give them the needed fireworks expected at the World Cup,” he said.
The post X-Raying Super Eagles World Cup Programme appeared first on Independent Nigeria.
X-Raying Super Eagles World Cup Programme
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