akamoke wrote:
Eaglezbeak wrote:
Tbite wrote:
Eaglezbeak wrote:
Considering Nigeria has only played in 6 World Cups (a lot for Africa) it’s strange how we’ve meet Argentina 4 times.
5 in 6 brother.
If we meet them in the next WC, FIFA need to tweak their seeding and grouping methods.
Yes that’s true and furthers the point.
Yes its beginning to sound like "Random with Bias", this Nigeria-Argentina thingy, what is also bad is the lob sided result...Ok i digress
There is nothing really wrong with it. The only real problem is we've never been strong enough to make it a true rivalry. Had it been that it had been six matches (instead of five), with two wins each, two losses each, and two draws .... and had one of the 6 matches been a World Cup semifinal rematch of an earlier group phase match, where the semifinal ended in a last-minute heartbreak for one of the teams .... well, then it would have been a storied rivalry.
Besides, it is not like we would necessarily have done better with a different South American team in our group. Brazil, as near as I can recall, beats African teams 3-0 at the World Cup, the same score by which we lost to them in our friendly (and the score of most of our matches against Kenya). And when we had Paraguay, well, you know what happened. That said .... I am rather keen on seeing us play the likes of Brazil and Colombia at the World Cup, even if we lose. The real fun of the World Cup is facing interesting teams you rarely have the chance to face in serious (i.e. non-friendly) matches.
Another thing that would be interesting is if two African teams qualified from their groups in such a way that we would witness the first Africa-versus-Africa match at the World Cup. Ideally, in the quarterfinals, so one African team is guaranteed a semifinal place, but the Second Round is a more realistic stage at which such a match could occur (and for now, I use "realistic" loosely). I have suffered the hypertension of watching Nigeria in loser-goes-home matches against Cameroun, Cote d'Ivoire, Algeria, Ghana, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia .... but never at a World Cup.
Anyway .... what starting 11 and formation do you gentlemen think we should use against Argentina in 2022 in Qatar?
PS: Had we progressed from our group in 2018, it would have been France .... again ... and again in the Second Round.
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