…Russia, S/Arabia clash at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow
Today, Thursday 14th of June 2018, the whole world will stand still for the commencement of FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 but to many Nigerians, the world cup starts on the 16th when the Super Eagles takes on Croatia.
Croatia parades very experienced players who have played at previous World Cup competitions and many still play for big European teams. From the likes of Modric of Real Madrid, Rakitic of Barcelona, Mandzukic of Juventus, Lovren of Liverpool, Perisic of Inter Milan etc.
Modric and Rakitic, have 194 caps between them, Vedran Corluka boasts of 97-cap, 82-cap for Mario Mandzukic and 64-cap Ivan Perisic – that’s the experience this Croatia team parades.
Ranked as the 20th footballing nation in the world, 28 places ahead of Nigeria on the latest FIFA ranking. Croatian national team is managed by 51 year old Zlatko Dalic. Zlatko Dalic was a defensive midfielder and favours a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Super Eagles team is majorly made up of young players with little experience. Mikel Obi, Elderson Echiele, Ogenyi Onazi, Ahmed Musa and Victor Moses are the only players to have played in a FIFA world cup before.
The star players in the team are Mikel Obi and Victor Moses. Both players have played at the biggest football stage in the world, especially Mikel who has won everything in club football with Chelsea FC.
64 year old German tactician, Gernot Rohr is the Super Eagles coach. Rohr is an experienced manager, who led Bordeaux to UEFA cup final in 1996 and was sporting director at Frankfurt.
He has coached Gabon, Niger and Burkina Faso national teams and that gives him the knowledge of how to manage an African team. Rohr is a big fan of 4-3-3 formation and he’s very particular about the defensive set up of his team.
Key players
Nigeria
Nigeria has always been in the upper echelon of African football, and this year’s team is no exception. The Super Eagles will look to play fast and ruin opponents on the counter by utilising the raw speed of Ahmed Musa and Victor Moses, and that’s before we even mention the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi and Odion Ighalo. Nigeria have a strong midfield as well, but have picked a largely inexperienced defence, with Kenneth Omeruo being one of the more senior custodians in the group at only 24 years of age. If Nigeria want to make it deep into the tournament, they will need to feed early balls to their dangerous wide men and attackers and let them run, because their midfield isn’t the type to create a lot of chances through guile and intricate passing movements.
Croatia
Luka Modric is one of the most cultured and classy midfielders of his generation, and the obvious focal point and captain of the Croatian team. Any and all attacks will go through Modric and his partner in crime, Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic, with the duo forming one of the elite central midfield pairings at the World Cup.
Chelsea’s Mario Pasalic is a victim of Croatia’s midfield glut of talent, but Napoli’s Marko Rog is the bigger exclusion here. A key part of the Napoli engine room, Rog made 28 Serie A appearances last season, scoring a solitary goal. Still only 22 yet with 12 caps already, Rog was a prolific goal scorer in his youth career in Croatia before transitioning into more of a playmaking type, forming a good partnership with Jorginho in the Napoli midfield. Rog was a regular member of the Croatian qualifying campaign, but lost out to bigger names when the final selection was made.
Croatia Qualifying Form
Croatia finished second in Group I in UEFA qualifying, behind fellow Group D participants Iceland. Croatia possessed the best defence in the group, only conceding four goals total, and went undefeated at home, even while playing in front of empty stadiums as part of a FIFA ban.
In the end, Croatia’s group wasn’t particularly dangerous, as they handled the likes of Turkey, Ukraine, Finland and Kosovo with relative ease. Croatian fans were allowed back in for their playoff matches, where they were drawn against Greece. A 4-1 home win in the first leg set up a comfortable away trip, where Croatia held Greece to a scoreless draw to book their ticket to Russia.
Played: 10. Won: 6. Drawn: 2. Lost: 2. Goals For: 15. Goals Against: 4. Points: 20.
Nigeria Qualifying Form
Nigeria had a relatively comfortable path to qualification, finishing first in Group B of the final round of CAF qualifying, beating out Zambia, Cameroon and Algeria, with the latter two putting up disappointing showings. Nigeria only lost one game in the final round, a 3-0 reverse in Algeria, but still finished 5 points clear at the top of the group, winning all three of their home games. Victor Moses led the way with 3 goals for Nigeria, while Mikel, Iheanacho and Iwobi all chipped in with 2 each.
Played: 6. Won: 4. Drawn: 1. Lost: 1. Goals For: 11. Goals Against: 6. Points: 13.
Possible Line-Up
Nigeria: Ezenwa (G), Troost-Ekong, Balogun, Ogu, V. Moses Idowu, Ndidi, Mikel, Otebo, Iwobi, Ighalo. (3-5-2 formation)
Subašić (G), Ćorluka, Vida, Vrsaljko, Srna, Brozovic, Kovacic, Modric, Rakitic, Perisic, Mandžukić. (4-2-3-1 Formation)
Croatia last 6 International games
2 – 1 v Senegal (h)
0 – 2 v Brazil (a)
1 – 0 v Mexico (a)
0 – 2 v Peru (a)
0 – 0 v Greece (a)
4 – 1 v Greece (h)
Nigeria last 6 International games
0 – 1 v Czech Rep (h)
1 – 2 v England (a)
1 – 1 v DR Congo (h)
0 – 2 v Serbia (h)
1 – 0 v Poland (a)
4 – 2 v Argentina (a)
…Russia, S/Arabia clash at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow
Russia vs Saudi Arabia: The World Cup will kick off in ernest today, Thursday at Moscow’s newly renovated Luzhniki Stadium. It will be the first true test for the Sbornaya as they will face the Green Falcons from Saudi Arabia.
Coached by Stanislav Cherchesov, Russia had a horrid time preparing for the tournament. Winless in four friendlies ahead of the tournament (D1 L3) Russia failed to secure wins against Austria (0-1) and Turkey (1-1). Friendlies, however, are seldom a sign of true strength, at the same time the Sbornayahave struggled now for quite some time and failed to get out of the group stage at the 2016 European Championships and the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.
At the Confederations Cup last summer Russia, like it is the case this summer, faced the weakest opponent to kick off the tournament in New Zealand. Like it was the case last summer Russia will have to get all three points against Saudi Arabia to have a fighting chance in Group A that also includes Uruguay and Egypt.
Saudi Arabia ranked three places ahead of Russia in the FIFA World Ranking, however, it will not be an easy opponent for a side lacking confidence at the moment. The Green Falcons, in the meantime, will take confidence from their last friendly against Germany where despite going down by two goals early they managed to get back into the game and almost managed to get a 2-2 draw in the dying moments of the game.
Sitting deep the Green Falcons managed to break forward quickly when winning the ball. Germany’s defenders, Mats Hummels and Jérôme Boateng, were able to contain the fast majority of those quick counter-attacks. Russia’s defence, however, is much slower and the likes of Sergei Ignashevich could struggle with the speed of Saudi Arabia’s attack.
Regardless, Russia will be the favourites going into the match irrespective as the Luzhniki Stadium will be a cauldron backing their Sbornaya. Key for Russia will be to contain the pressure of having to win the match; the quality should be there to get the job done the question will be whether the Russian players have the nerves to step up to the occasion.
Players to look out for:
Fedor Smolov (Russia)
Fedor Smolov is the biggest star in this Russia side and will lead the side up front. The striker has scored 12 goals in 32 games for the Sbornaya, and one of those goals was the winner against New Zealand in the first match of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup last summer. That game, in particular, highlighted that Smolov could get the job done, even when under pressure, and fans of the Sbornaya will once again look at the Krasnodar striker when it comes to clutch moments in Russia’s crucial first World Cup match against Saudi Arabia.
Mohammad Al-Sahlawi (Saudi-Arabia)
Mohammad Al-Sahlawi has one thing in common with Robert Lewandowski. Both managed to score 16 goals in World Cup qualifying. Eight of those goals, however, were scored against East Timor – the Green Falcons scored 17 goals (7-0 and 10-0) in the two matches against the East Asian side. There is no doubt that Al-Sahlawi is Saudi Arabia’s best striker, but can he translate his game to facing bigger opponents like Germany? Against other top sides from Asia Al-Sahlawi has struggled only scoring once – in a 3-2 defeat to Australia. In recent friendlies against Moldova, Ukraine, Belgium, Algeria, Greece, Peru and Germany – Al-Sahlawi was left without a goal.
Possible Line
Saudi Arabia: Abdullah Al-Mayouf (G), Yasir Al-Shahrani, Osama Hawsawi, Omar Hawsawi, Mansour Al-Harbi, Abdullah Otayf, Salman Al-Faraj, Yahya Al-Shehri, Taisir Al-Jassim, Salem Al-Dawsari, Mohammad Al-Sahlawi (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Head Coach: Stanislav Cherchesov
Russia: Igor Akinfeev (G),Igor Smolnikov, Ilya Kutepov, Sergei Ignashevich, Aleksandr Samedov, Aleksei, Miranchuk, Yury Gazinsky, Yuri Zhirkov, Alan Dzagoev, Aleksandr Golovin, Fyodor Smolov. (Formation: 4-2-2-2)
Head Coach: Juan Antonio Pizzi
Referee: Nestor Pitana from Argentina.
