Nigeria: We represent the opponent of the national team of Ukraine in today's friendly match

10.09.2019 12:00

After a confident victory over the Lithuanian team (3: 0) in the Euro 2020 qualifying match, the national team of Ukraine will meet Nigeria today in a friendly match.

General Information

As of July 2019, the Nigerians ranked 33rd in the official FIFA rankings. The Nigerian national team played its first match in history on October 8, 1949 in Lagos with Sierra Leone, winning 2-0.

The Nigerian team has won the African Cup of Nations three times (1980, 1994, 2013), won gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, in addition, in 2008 in Beijing became silver, and in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro - bronze medalist of the Olympics .

The Nigerians have qualified for the finals of the World Cup six times. Their best achievement is reaching the 1/8 finals of the tournament (1994, 1998, 2014). Three more times the team finished the fight in the group round (2002, 2010, 2018).  

Among its fans, the Nigerian national team has the nicknames "Super Eagles" and "African Brazilians".

The composition of the Nigeria national team

Goalkeepers: Ikechukwu Ezenwa (Katsina United), Francis Ozoho (Omonia, Cyprus), Emil Okoe (Fortuna, Germany).

Defenders: Kenneth Omeruo (Leganes, Spain), Leon Balogun (Brighton, England), William Ekong (Udinese, Italy), Tyrone Ebuehi (Benfica, Portugal), Ola Aina (Turin, Italy), Chidozi Avazim (Porto, Portugal), Oluvasemiloga Ajay (West Bromwich, England), Jamila Collins (Paderborn, Germany).

Midfielders: Wilfred Ndi (Leicester, England), Ogenekaro Etebo (Stoke City, England), Alex Iwobi (Everton, England), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester, England), Joe Aribo (Rangers, Scotland) .

Forwards: Samuel Kalou (Bordeaux, France), Moses Simon (Levante, Spain), Henry Oniecuru (Monaco, France), Paul Onuachu (Midtjylland, Denmark), Samuel Chuquuese (Villarreal, Spain), Victor Osimchen (Lille, France).

English clubs have the largest representation in the Nigerian national team. They delegated six performers. Three players each represent the championships of France and Spain. And only one, goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa, plays for the club from the domestic championship. 

Head Coach

Gernot Rohr, a 66-year-old German specialist, has been coaching the Nigerian national team since August 2016. Under his leadership, the "Super Eagles" reached the final part of the 2018 World Cup. There they defeated Iceland (2: 0), but lost to Croatia (0: 2) and Argentina (1: 2), eventually finishing third in Group D. Its inevitable success this year is Nigeria's third place in the African Cup of Nations. .

Gernot Rohr has extensive experience working with teams from the Black Continent. He has worked with the teams of Gabon, Niger and Burkina Faso. His most successful collaboration with the Gabonese is to be recognized as the most successful. In 2014, this team reached the quarter-finals of the African Nations Cup, where the penalty was lost to the team of Mali. 

In his club career, Rohr can be considered a great success working with the French "Bordeaux". Under the leadership of a German specialist, the team reached the final of the UEFA Cup-1995/1996, where they lost to Bayern Munich (0: 2, 1: 3). 

Leaders

In the match against Ukraine, the Nigerian national team will not be able to count on two of its leaders at once. Midfielder Ahmed Musa (87 matches, 15 goals) and striker Odion Igalo (35 matches, 16 goals) are injured. The experienced captain of the team, 32-year-old John Obi Mikel, will not take part in the meeting either. 

In the absence of these three performers, the nominal leader of the Nigerian national team can be considered a 23-year-old midfielder of English "Everton" Alex Iwobi. As part of the Nigerian national team, he played 36 matches, scoring six goals. Alex is a pupil of the London school "Arsenal", where he studied since the age of eight. 

Iwobi, of course, started his club career at Arsenal, for which he played 2015 matches and scored 2019 goals in 100-11. On August 8, 2019, the midfielder signed a five-year contract with Everton. The amount of the transfer was 40 million pounds.

Relations with Ukraine

The teams of Nigeria and Ukraine did not meet. But in general, with the African teams, the Blue and Yellow have played six matches. The statistics show the benefit of our national team.

Three matches against the Africans ended with the victories of the Ukrainians - with Niger (2: 1), Libya (3: 0) and Tunisia (1: 0). Three more matches, the blue and yellows drew with Libya (1: 1), Cameroon (0: 0) and Morocco (0: 0).

It will be recalled that a friendly match at the Dnipro-Arena stadium between the national teams of Ukraine and Nigeria will take place today, September 10 (starting at 21.30 pm).