Eagles Confident, As Nigeria Draw Argentina Again

THE Super Eagles were Friday at the luxurious Costa do Sauípe in Salvador, Brazil handed a group that contains perennial foes, Argentina in the 2014 World Cup draws conducted by FIFA’s Jerome Valcke. 

 Valcke was assisted by Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Alcides Ghiggia, Fernando Hierro, Sir Geoff Hurst, Mario Kempes, Lothar Matthaus and Zinedine Zidane, who were representing the eight World Cup winners.

  The 2014 World Cup would be the fourth Mundial that Nigeria will face Argentina in the opening round having met the South Americans at the USA 1994, Japan/Korea 2002 and South Africa 2010 editions of the Mundial.

  In all the three previous encounters, the Argentines had the upper hand a tricky combination of Maradona and Claudio Canniggia accounting for their 2-1 defeat of the Eagles, even after Samson Siasia had given the Eagles the lead in that game.

  At the Korea/Japan edition, a header by Gabriel Batistuta settled the game, while the Argies relied on a Gabriel Heinze header to win the game. And now, both teams will meet again in their last group game on June 25, 2014 at Porto Alegre.

 But the Eagles are not daunted by the presence of the South Africans once again in their group.

  Speaking after yesterday’s draw, the Eagles, who watched attentively to discover their opponents in the first round, agreed that they have a fair draw in Group F.

   The other teams in the group are Bosnia and Iran. 

  Nigeria will open its participation at the Mundial with a game in Curitiba against Iran on June 16 and travel to Cuiaba on June 21 for their game against Bosnia before the last game against Argentina.

  Super Eagles’ midfielder, Nnamdi Oduamadi, who rates Argentina as the only serious threat to Nigeria’s qualification for the second round, believes the game against Iran is the most crucial of the three group matches.   

  He said, “I am happy with this group and we are in the second round already as far as I am concerned. Argentina looks the toughest, but we are good enough to beat them.

  “the task is to beat Iran in the first game, get a good result against Bosnia before settling qualification with the Argentine game,” Odumadi said. 

    Efe Ambrose also believes that the draw is favourable, but he cautions the Eagles against complacency. 

    “This is a fair group. It won’t be an easy ride for us because every team in the group have chance to qualify, we will take all games with all seriousness needed,” he said.

   In the other groups of the competition, defending champions, Spain, will meet 2010 finalists the Netherlands in the so-called Group of Death.

  Spain, who defeated the Dutch 1-0 in the South Africa final, are also joined by Chile, world-ranked 15th, and Australia in Group B.

  England, the 1966 World Cup winners, also face a tough route to the second round of the Brazil World Cup next summer. 

  They were drawn with Uruguay, Costa Rica and Italy in Group D. The omens are not good. Uruguay defeated Brazil 2-1 in the 1950 World Cup final, the last time the tournament was staged in South America.    

  Five-time world champions Brazil, the host nation, have arguably the easiest draw, with Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon standing in their way of advancing to the knockout stage from Group A.

  Brazil v Croatia is the opening game of the June 12 to July 13 World Cup.

  Germany, who lost 1-0 to Spain in the 2010 World Cup semi-final, face Ronaldo’s Portugal, Ghana and USA in Group G.

  The draw not only revealed who will face who in the group stages of the 32-team tournament, but it also determined where the teams would play their games and how far they would have to travel from their training bases.