Three –time African champions, Super Eagles of Nigeria and two
–time world champions Argentina will square up in a high –profile international
friendly in the Russian city of Krasnodar.
The match will take place on Tuesday, 14th November 2017 at the
Krasnodar Arena Stadium.
Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF)’s General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, disclosed at the
weekend that nearly all arrangements have been concluded with regards to the
big match, subject to approval by world football –ruling body, FIFA and
agreeable flight arrangements. “We have had long and fruitful talks, and we can
say that we have an agreement. We await the approval by FIFA and also, we have
to agree on the flight arrangements that would be comfortable for the players
and crew.
“The match will
come up on 14th November, four days after the Super Eagles’ final 2018 FIFA
World Cup qualifying match away to Algeria. We had offers from teams like Iran,
Saudi Arabia and Morocco but we have opted for the Argentines,” Sanusi said. The
Eagles take on Algeria’s Fennecs in what is no more than an academic exercise,
at the Stade Mohamed Hamlaoui in Constantine on Friday, 10thNovember. Nigeria
and Argentina played two high –profile friendly matches in 2011, the first in
Abuja in June ending 4-1 in favour of the Super Eagles. The Albiceleste trumped
the second encounter 3-1 in Dhaka, Bangladesh three months later.
NFF’s FIFA Match
Agent Jairo Pachon of Eurodata Sport, who also organized the friendly matches
with the Argentines in 2011 and has been working hard for various Nigerian
National Teams in the areas of training camps and friendly games since 2009,
told thenff.com: “We are very pleased to be able to deliver such a high
–profile game to celebrate the Super Eagles’ 2018 World Cup qualification. “It was a lot of work over the past week but
we are happy this has become reality. We will, in due course, reveal the
Nigerian sponsor of the match who will have the match rights in Nigeria.” While
Argentina qualified for Russia on the final day of the South American
qualification campaign, the Super Eagles have reached Russia with a match to
spare.
Nigeria have had to
confront Argentina in four of its previous five FIFA World Cup appearances,
starting with a 1-2 defeat in Boston, USA in the African team’s debut in
1994. Argentina won another group
phase clash 1-0 in Ibaraki, Japan in 2002, won a similar encounter by the same
margin in Johannesburg, South Africa eight years later and then edged the
Eagles 3-2 in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2014. Other famous encounters between
both nations include two final matches of the Olympic Men’s Football Tournament
– Nigeria edging it in 1996 in America and the Argies winning by the odd goal
in China 12 years later.
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