Super Eagles look to make history against France

The Super Eagles is looking to make another history in World Cup as they take on France in the knockout stages of the tournament. A place in the 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals awaits the Eagles if they win France later today. The French team looks extremely deadly in their opening two matches of the World Cup as they thrashed Honduras 3-0 and hammered Switzerland 5-2.

French top striker, Karim Benzema, who has three goals and two assists, leads the strong French attack, which has been

solid by finding ways to create scoring chances from the midfield.

Benzema is refusing to write off Nigeria’s chances and insists France will take them seriously.

“We have qualified, so one must be happy about that. It was a tough, tough match, and although we had a lot of success in front of goal in our previous games this time we came across a team who caused up problems on a physical level. “We had some good chances to score, we had opportunities but we came across a keeper who played out of his skin. “Now we have to rest, recover and get 100 per cent ready for the knock-out match against Nigeria, who are a good, strong team, but we must do everything to win.”

The French will be at full strength and fresh for this match, as Patrice Evra, Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Valbuena all rested in the last group match facing Ecuador. France has a solid midfield, but they are an attacking one that pushes forward and may play into the hands of Nigeria.

Nigeria qualified for the knockout stages of the competition after finishing second in Group F behind one of the tournament favourites Argentina. The Super Eagles claimed a total of four points thanks to a goalless draw against Iran and a 1-0 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Their only defeat was a narrow 3-2 loss against Argentina.

Nigeria manager Stephen Keshi was delighted to guide the Super Eagles side out of the Group Stages for the first time since 1998, but he wants them to improve against the French. He said: “It’s an honour and we’re very happy to reach the next round. I think we lost the game because we showed them too much respect in the first half. “After the break we managed to play our game, attacked more, had more possession and were better overall. But Argentina is a great team and Messi’s a great player. He’s blessed and there’s no way you can escape him. Messi’s from Jupiter.” Nigeria appears to be overmatched in the midfield and John Obi Mikel who is supposed to be solid in that area of the pitch hasn’t been too impressive in the tournament so far.

The eagles will also be posing a threat to the French defence with the counter-attacking abilities of Ahmed Musa, Osaze Odemwingie and Emmanuel Emenike. The French have issues on defense, especially from Mathieu Debuchy and Patrice Evra. And while they conceded two goals in the group stage, they did not face a strong attacking force like Nigeria.

Nigeria can pull off the shocker here and oust France, moving a step closer to making a World Cup history in the process.

Kick off time for the France v Nigeria game is 5.00pm Nigerian time on Monday, June 30.

BusinessDay