Nigeria and Saudi Arabia will clash in a senior international friendly match in the city of Portimão, Portugal on Friday, 13th October 2023.
The clash comes barely a month before the three-time African champions, who lashed Sao Tome and Principe 6-0 in their 2023 AFCON final-day qualification game in Uyo on Sunday, set out on the race for a place at the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals with a home game against the Crocodiles of Lesotho.
Within the same FIFA window in November, the Eagles will play their second match of the qualification series, away to the Warriors of Zimbabwe.
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Saudi Arabia’s Green Falcons, who play Mali’s Eagles at the same venue four days later, have played Nigeria once at senior level.
The most remarkable clash between both countries remains the opening match of FIFA U20 World Cup (then known as FIFA World Youth Championship) in 1989, in which second half goals Chrstopher Ohenhen and Mutiu Adepoju steered Nigeria to a comeback 2-1 victory over the host nation in Riyadh.
The Estadio Municipal de Portimão, in the Algarve, is the home ground of Portimonense S.C. and can seat close to 10,000 spectators.“`
23 Comments
“…Saudi Arabia’s Green Falcons, who play Mali’s Eagles at the same venue four days later, have never played Nigeria at senior level…”
We played a goalless draw in a pre-world cup friendly in 2010
@Dr.Drey… It was a 1 – 1 draw, Haruna Lukman scorer our equalizer from a long range strike…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imbidJchnPk
This was the only goal Haruna Lookman ever scored for the SE. And that team in Yellow does not look like the Saudis.
You are right… It was against colombia. I apologize…
You can’t beat Dr. Drey with facts! Thumbs up.
only me can beat him !!!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha. They’ve edited the error. Nice.
This editing job is what I call Field Marshall efficiency. Lol
The Super Eagles’ friendly match against Saudi Arabia in October 2023 offers a crucial opportunity for Nigeria to refine their squad ahead of upcoming World Cup qualifiers. As the team gears up for critical fixtures against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, fans can stay updated on all the action, highlights, and team developments. For seamless access to match content and more, TeraBox Pro is the perfect storage solution to keep your media and data organized.
Nigeria should try and arrange a second friendly within the window, The Saudis are playing twice, why can’t we?
Its like you still dont understand the modus operandi of this NFF.
They don’t organize friendlies. They just market the SE to teams who are willing to host us and bear the costs of organizing the friendly and come back home to add “We organized friendlies” in their financial reports as a means of covering up for looted funds.
Most serious countries played 2 matches during this window that just passed now and will probably play two in the next.
But this tight-fisted bunch will never shed 1 kobo to host even Togo or CAR (who will likely fly back home through lagos) in friendly match at the Onikan stadium in Lagos.
Dem don use ARALDITE gum their hands together.
Gasau is a whack.Irll take a miracle for our teams to fly under him. I’m beginning to see Pimnick as a “saint” where this man dey.
I don’t get. What’s difficult in organising friendlies? Especially with a brand like the Eagles starring an Osimhen.
If it is so expensive playing against the big guns, why not organise friendlies against opponents from the African neighbourhood especially when we’re going to be playing a world cup qualifier against and Afcon against such opposition.
Like Dr Drey mentioned, you got Togo ( shares similarities to Benin that we’ld play against). You can play Botswana, Malawi ( both similar to Zimbabwe, to some extent SA; we play both too ). These teams wouldn’t cost much to play against. Heck, they would jump at the offer.
If you feel location could be problematic and costlier to bring the boys down to Africa; then organise a match right there in Portugal against teams like Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, they got most of their players plying their trade in Portugal and the environs like Spain and France. For crying out loud ,there are lots of nations in the world.NFF look it up in the map, I promise you ,you would be shocked!
How do one formulate tactics for or even gel a team without friendlies?! Knowing fully well we got a high volume of players that need game time to be assessed and we lack time.
NFF be proactive. Damn! Gusau,you got just one job . You fought for it. Do your job.
The NFF cannot organise copious friendly games for the Super Eagles as this time because the organisation is financially crippled.
They have very little cash in the coffers.
Organising friendlies involve, at the very least, paying the players match bonuses. This becomes problematic when the organisation currently (allegedly) owes the various male and female national teams several years match bonuses and the coaches several months salaries.
I can only pray that countries like Saudi Arabia invite Nigeria to as many friendlies as possible as that will be only chance to gauge Nigeria’s readiness for going far in the Afcon next year and pushing to qualify for the 2026 world cup.
We already know that Peseiro plays 4-4-2 similar to Eguavoen. But, unlike Eguavoen, Peseiro’s Super Eagles try to manage the length of time in which it morphs into the perilous 4-2-4 in-game. Rather, they try to have 2 strikers in front of 2 wingers who themselves sit in front of the 2 centre midfielders. This arrangement, when mixed with one-time passing routines, helps maintain the structural integrity of the 4-4-2 formation particularly when the team is out of possession.
Yes, against Sao Tome and Principe, the Super Eagles went for broke by having the 2 wingers almost on a parallel line with the 2 strikers when Nigeria attacked at times (giving a 4-2-4 type shape), I doubt Peseiro’s Super Eagles will be that brazen against more formidable oppositions.
They just wanted to set a record of scoring 10 goals again against the same opposition.
Even in that game, Iheanacho was often a bit withdrawn and he drifted in to lend the formation a more 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 outlook when Aina was overlapping.
If you watch that game again and even last year’s friendly loss to Algeria, you will see attempts made at injection complexity in Nigeria’s build up play with provides subtle flair. I can see that the NFF technical department hasn’t given up on the Super Eagles playing an attractive brand of football.
Watching the interplay of passes and Osihmen’s willingness to pass the ball even when he himself is in a promising position suggests to me that the team wants to move in a direction of imaginative and creative style of play.
For me, as noted in another post, I saw Peseiro’s Nigeria huff and puff against Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau. If this tactical emblem failed to outright demolish those two teams – producing only wafer slim victories and even 1 embarrassing loss – then I am yet to be sold on how it will hold up against Cameroon, Morocco, Ghana, Senegal and Ivory Coast.
I advocated for Peseiro’s contract to be renewed, he now has to start repaying that vote of confidence when next the Super Eagles face a formidable foe.
Disclaimer: sorry for any grammatical errors as I had no time to edit this.
our next 4 friendly games, Oman,Bahrain, Qatar,Kuwait! We are playing them at their own invite and in their homes.If you know you know!
@ deo
Totally understand that the shameful NFF can’t organise friendly games cause they’re financially handicapped but questions arise;
Have the NFF ever been Financially buoyant? It is an open secret they’ve always been broke.
Even at such, isn’t it their duty to seek out funds, sponsorship to get things done. Isn’t it flat out ineptitude and derelict of responsibility on the FA’s part not to fix this perennial issue of lack of funds?
If you can’t get the job done, then why fight for office?
Now we are stuck at the mercy of others. Such a shame.
Hi Mr Hush,
It is really an absolute pleasure to be in a position to bounce ideas with you after a very long time.
You see, the Alhaji Gusau administration is still trying to find its feet. It only just assumed office less than 12 months ago only to discuss what shambles the state of the organisation had been financially and administratively.
The Technical Committee, that allegedly stopped meeting properly during the previous regime appears to have been given renewed voice and a new lease of life.
Gusau inherited an organisation tittering on the brink of bankruptcy. If it was a private enterprise, the NFF will only sell for 1 Naira to any prospective buyers, things are that bad.
It begs the question how the accounts of the previous administration was audited.
I don’t want to be in Alhaji Gusau’s position at the moment. It is almost like trying to run up a downward escalator.
Sadly, for now I think we can only pray for other countries to invite Nigeria for friendlies with the add on of paying all our expenses.
We have crucial world cup qualifiers followed by Africa Cup of Nations to prosecute in the coming months (all against African countries) and we go on to prepare by playing Saudi Arabia, does that make sense? Like my fellow Nigerian brothers and sisters will : who does that?
A bankrupt NFF does that!
When you collate how much the previous NFF administration currently owes the following teams and their coaches in match bonuses, salaries and other financial entitlements, it will run into millions of Naira.
1) Flamingos
2) Falconets
3) Super Falcons
4) Golden Eagles
5) Flying Eagles
6) Super Eagles
7) Chan Eagles.
All these teams are being allegedly owes outstanding legacy payments form prior seasons.
Mark my words, some of the players in some of these teams will never be paid their owed entitlements in their lifetime.
Alhaji Gusau has to look for a way to resolve the financial issues that pre-date his administration in conjunction with financial planning for his own targets and objectives.
Well, he put himself forward for the role but maybe he didn’t have access to the dire financial situation at the time of running for office.
If he knew, maybe he could have given it a second thought.
@Deo
The pleasure is always mine.
Sometimes, I just wonder why Nigeria make simple issues complicated.
Everyone and their mum knows that Nigeria has a vast range of teams representing us internationally. An well run organisation would always be proactive.
The Gusua board knew what they were getting into when they vied for the FA job. The Super Eagles and Falcons are good brands if well sold. It is all about the management.
Nigeria leadership is just tiring..
The truth is that whether Gusau or any other person within the NFF,the NFF we know is riddled with corruption or do I say incompetent lots.Cast ur mind back to the just concluded WWCOP,why was the threat to sack the Falcon coach? What were the reasons why the money made available by FIFA to prepare the team not made available to the team? Gusau is likely to be the worst of all.
It will be a good test for the team as they prepare for the 2023 AFCON and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
correctly