Nigeria is ranked 50th in FIFA’s ranking, which is poor for a country once ranked 5th by FIFA. The Super eagles have attended the World cup games 6 times since 1994 and has only reached the round of 16 three times. The Super eagles are also the youngest team by age.
These countries have proved themselves in world football. Iceland proved themselves in the last Euro competition in 2016 which happened to be their first in history and they fought till the quarter finals. This is a country where football is not played enough at a professional level and yet they are rated 22 by FIFA Men’s ranking. The 2018 World cup in Russia will also be there first appearance. They might turn out to be the super eagles’ most difficult team to play.
Croatia is another wonderful team with a lot of creative midfielders and strikers, the likes of Modric, Perisic, Rakitic, Mandzukic. These are players that the opposition’s defenders should look out for. Croatia has 5 World cup appearances, and are rated at №17 by FIFA Men’s ranking. They reached the quarterfinals twice in 1996 and 2008.
Argentina has always been super eagle’s fate, judge, jury and executioner at the World cup games. It will interest a lot of people to know that Nigeria and Argentina have faced-off quite a good number of times at all levels, but what are the records. Here, we provide a look into the big games both countries have played against each other at senior level over the years.
BIG GAMES BETWEEN NIGERIA & ARGENTINA
25 June 1994: Nigeria 1 Argentina 2 – Boston, USA (FIFA World Cup)
10 Jan 1995: Argentina 0 Nigeria 0 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (FIFA Confederations Cup)
3 Aug 1996: Nigeria 3 Argentina 2 – Georgia, USA (Olympics Final)
2 June 2002: Argentina 1 Nigeria 0 – Ibaraki, Japan (FIFA World Cup)
2 July 2005: Nigeria 1 Argentina 2 – Utrecht, Netherlands (FIFA U20 World Cup Final)
23 Aug 2008: Argentina 1 Nigeria 0 – Beijing, China (Olympics Final)
12 June 2010: Argentina 1 Nigeria 0 – Jo’burg, South Africa (FIFA World Cup)
1 June 2011: Nigeria 4 Argentina 1 – Abuja, Nigeria (International Friendly)
6 Sept 2011: Argentina 3 Nigeria 1 – Dhaka, Bangladesh (International Friendly)
25 June 2014: Nigeria 2 Argentina 3 – Porto Alegre, Brazil (FIFA World Cup)
14 Nov 2017: Argentina 2 Nigeria 4 – Krasnadar (International friendly)
The Super eagles have won 3 games out of them 2 were friendly games.
Argentina has one of the most stacked team with a minimum of 10 World recognized players, the likes of Lionel Messia, Higuain, Mascherano, Angel Di Maria, Zabaleta, Paulo Dybala, Sergio Agüero, Nicolás Otamendi, Sergio Romero, Javier Pastore, . They might already be the winners of the group without even playing.
They are currently ranked 4th in FIFA ranking. They have 17 World cup appearances since 1930 and have been crowned champions twice in 1978 and 1986.
Today we will look at the most possible outcome to qualify from this group of death.
Here we will lok at the worst outcomes for the Super eagles.
Croatia vs Nigeria (The Super eagles will have to draw) – 16 JUN 2018 – 21:00 Local time (Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad);
Nigeria vs Iceland (The Super eagles will have to win) – 22 JUN 2018 – 18:00 Local time (Volgograd Arena, Volgograd);
Nigeria vs Argentina (The Super eagles will have to draw) – 26 JUN 2018 – 21:00 Local time (Saint Petersburg Stadium, St. Petersburg)
This will give the Super eagles a total of 5 points which might not be enough to finish 1st in the group but it will definitely be enough to finish at second place.
