Freshly capped Nigeria international defender Brian Idowu has given his take on the chances of Nigeria qualifying out of their World Cup 2018 group, where they are paired against Iceland, Croatia and Argentina.
The Russian born defender who made his debut for Nigeria against Argentina in a pre World Cup friendly, where he also scored one of the goals in the 4-2 comeback win insist that it will be a different game when both teams clash in Russia.
Although he is confident that Nigeria can beat Iceland and Croatia to seal qualification, he however cautioned his teammates to approach every game like a cup winner starting with the opener against Croatia on the 16th of June.
He cited Argentina and Barcelona super star Lionel Messi as the man to dread when Nigeria take on Argentina, describing him as a player from another planet due to his abilities.
Idowu believed that the Eagles can hold their own against any team in the world and named captain John Obi Mikel, Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi as the three most important players in the team.
“We got a hard group. Argentina are the top team in the group and they have Lionel Messi who is difficult to play against. He is probably from another planet,” Idowu who plays for Russian club Amkar Perm told m.sovsport.ru.
“But we can beat Croatia and Iceland. It is a powerful group but we can qualify to the next stage. Obi Mikel is the leader. He won everything with Chelsea and there is also Kelechi Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi with Leicester City.”
Osas Mahawi
