The World Cup: Nigeria

ThisDrinkingLife and The World Cup: Nigeria

Nigeria are a team I always enjoy watching in the World Cup. They always produce a few stand out games every time they are at the games. I remember how close they were to knocking out Italy in 1994, two minutes from time until some magic from Baggio, their 3-2 win against a decent Spanish team in 1998, coming from behind twice in the game to win, or in the last World cup where they lost to both Argentina (3-2) and France (0-2), games where they dictated a lot of the play but for better luck might have won. Yeah Nigeria are always strong in the World Cup.

This time round they get to play Argentina, again, and Iceland and Croatia. It is a tough group, and with Croatia up first for them they really need some result from that tie going into the more winnable game against Iceland, and hoping that they dont need a win in the last game against Argentina. It will be touch and go if they can make it out. At this moment in time I would fancy Croatia to be ahead of them in second place, but as I have said, Nigeria can play some good football and if it all clicks they might just come out of this difficult group.

Their form of late is not great but this is a team that came out of a tough qualifying group that included Cameroon, Algeria and Zambia, blitzing the group and qualifying with little hassle. Ex Chelsea head, John Obi Mikel is the captain of a squad that perhaps doesn’t have as many big names as of previous squads, but its made up of a lot of up and coming young players, Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho for example, that play more as a team and a willing to lay it on the line for their German coach Gernot Rohr who has given them their chance to shine at this years big event. Nigeria have a chance, but whatever happens they will entertain, that’s for sure.