Wounded Super Eagles are skating on thin ice
Nordic side lifted by group opener
Gelendzhik – Nigeria take on Iceland today, seeking to salvage their faltering World Cup campaign but wary of the Nordic team’s capacity to go toe-to-toe with their supposed superiors.
Coach Gernot Rohr’s Super Eagles – who brought the youngest squad to Russia, with an average age of around 25 – have now won just one of their past 13 games at World Cups.
Nigeria reached the knockout phase at the 2014 World Cup, but slipped to a 2-0 defeat in their Group D opener against Croatia in Kaliningrad, courtesy of an Oghenekaro Etebo own goal and a Luka Modric penalty.
“Sometimes we were a little bit naive on set-pieces but we will work on it,” said Rohr.
Iceland are buoyant after what their coach Heimir Hallgrimsson described as a “schoolbook example” of how to defend against Lionel Messi’s Argentina.
Messi complained that “Iceland didn’t want to play” but the Nordic minnows, playing in their first World Cup, were unimpressed by the criticism.
“Maybe he would have been happier if we had played attacking football and lost 5-0. People can have their opinion about it but we really don’t care,” said goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson.
The Nigeria game in Volgograd will be “a bit more open”, said the 34-year-old keeper, whose string of saves, most notably from a Messi penalty, kept the 2014 finalists at bay. “Nigeria will be difficult to beat. They are fast and more direct than Argentina. It will be a different game in many ways,” he added.
Rohr believes his team could still make it out of a competitive group. –
‘ ‘ Nigeria are fast and more direct than Argentina