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Nigeria’s Super Eagles have arrived Portugal ahead of next Wednesday’s international friendly match.
The team and officials arrival was announced by media officer Promise Efoghe.
According to Efoghe, 19 players travelled from Poland to Portugal for the friendly.
The spokesperson disclosed that Alex Iwobi and Genk defender Christian Akpan have joined others in Lisbon and Samuel Chukwueze is expected on Friday.
He added that Pisa striker Rafiu Durosinmi was excused to attend to private matters.
The tie with Portugal is the second of two international friendly matches lined up for the Super Eagles.
In their first tune up tie against Poland in Warsaw on Wednesday, it ended 2-2 following a stoppage time strike.
Goals from Terem Moffi and Paul Onuachu put the Eagles 2-1 ahead with seconds remaining only to concede following a world class strike by a Polish player.
This would be the second time the Super Eagles and Portugal will clash with the Euro 2016 champions winning the first encounter – also a friendly match- 4-0 in Lisbon in 2022.
Also Read: Friendly: Chelle Pleased with Super Eagles’ Draw Against Poland
The Super Eagles are using the friendly games to prepare for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers which will begin in September 2026.
They are drawn in Group L with AFCON 2027 hosts Tanzania, Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau.
At the 2025 AFCON in Morocco, Eric Chelle guided the team to a third place finish after a penalty shootout win against Egypt.
The Super Eagles failed to qualify for this year’s World Cup after finishing second behind South Africa.
Despite finishing second the team qualified for the African playoff in Morocco, but lost on penalties to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the final.
The Congolese went on to qualify for the World Cup, which was their first since 1974 in the former West Germany.
To reach this year’s World Cup the Congolese pipped Jamaica 1-0 in the final of the Intercontinental playoff in Mexico.
By James Agberebi
6 Comments
I’m not expecting anything special from this group who failed to qualify for the world cup and repeated same pattern of conceding late goals against Poland. I still maintain that the coach should have use the B team to play Poland and Portugal so that all doubting Thomases will be able to see that B team is better and something is wrong with the A. Team. Maybe the midfield , goal keeper is not good enough.. I’m 100% sure the B team will not concede those preventable goals against Poland. Keeping two clean sheets against Jamaica and Zimbabwe is not a fluke. There is no way the sluggish A team midfield achored by Ndidi will not hv conseded a goal or two against Jamaica or Zimbabwe. So going forward pls coach Chelle forget names make the B team midfield combo the core of the team
In an age of “low centre of gravity” versatile Swiss knife midfielders like Portugal (Bruno Fernandes + Bernardo Silva + Vitinha + Neves), Spain (Pedri + Zubimendi + Rodri + Merino), Argentina (Fernandez + Messi + Mac Allister + De Paul), Nigeria persists with the “Blunderbus” of single specialty midfielders that can only tackle and lack distribution intelligence. Yes, Ndidi got his first assist in years against Poland – along with his recent first goal.
Look at the Unity Cup, when Nigeria fielded a “low centre of gravity” midfield with Al Hassan, Nnadi and Tijani, all of whom bore equal responsibility for tackling, passing, harrying and carrying the ball i.e. Swiss Knife midfielders.
Now look at the Poland match where we play a tackling pivot (Ndidi and Onyeka) with Nnadi. What you see is Poland dominating the middle of the pitch and Nigeria relying on wings. Ndidi operates as a shield for the defense i.e. an additional defender, while Onyeka brings tackling to the middle without passing intelligence.
Without Iwobi, this midfield is moribund in supporting the attack. Iwobi on his part is also a specialty midfielder (passing distribution intelligence without tackling acumen).
The Unity Cup midfielders had everything, they didn’t need a specialty midfielder in any role because they were all Swiss Knives.
Many people take criticism of Ndidi personally, but he belongs to an age of dominant defensive midfielders (a burden his age no longer adequately supports), that in my view is curtailing the tactical evolution of the SE’s midfield along the lines of the world’s best (Argentina, Spain and Portugal) midfields.
The result of Nigeria’s midfield formation against Poland was the underperformance of Akor Adams, who lacked adequate supply. Iwobi is the answer, but what if Iwobi is injured? And deploying Iwobi requires compensating for his tackling inadequacies i.e. his lack of midfield anticipatory and positioning intelligence – he ball watches. In short, the answer to Iwobi’s shortcomings is Frank Onyeka.
So if Ndidi, a positioning/tackling specialist is to play, you need a ball distributor. If your ball distributor is also a specialist who can’t tackle, you need another tackler to cover for him.
This would all be simple if we used Swiss Knife midfielders. For whatever reason Onyedika missed a big opportunity by not playing the Unity Cup matches. He could have established a working knowledge with the Swiss Knife midfield of Al Hassan, Nnadi and Tijani.
This is the direction I think the SE’s midfield should develop towards.
Al Hassan disappointed many (who hoped for his career development at the highest levels) including myself by going to the US.
In comparison, remember, that the Ndidi-Onyeka midfield faced Jamaica in 2025 and only managed a draw.
Eyes are many, but the ones that see are few.
It’s so refreshing to know that you’ve got eyes and they can see.
Thumbs up, brother. Enough said already.
No news on CSN about CIV beating France?
France don collect. E shock Dem. Mbappe looked nonplussed on the bench.
Amad Diallo! Sweet, sweet, fanta Diallo!
But the man of the match was Desire doue’s brother, who switched from France to CIV. He used this game to show France what they are missing. WIth a goal and an assist, he played a crucial role in the French humiliation.
Yep, there it is. CIV showing that Africa can be world beaters. Will Nigeria keep this up against Portugal?
France is the number one ranked country on earth, and they remain a major contender for the world cup trophy. Perhaps this defeat is what they needed to keep everyone grounded. This is football. Nobody is going to the world cup to admire sky scrapers.
That was a top top performance yesterday the match was very interesting to watch….