Preview of Greece vs Nigeria

A preview of the friendly between Nigeria and Scotland taking place in America. The preview includes some betting advice.

After announcing his final 23 man squad for the World Cup today, Stephen Keshi will continue his preparation for the tournament with a friendly against Greece. This match takes place tonight at the PPL Park in Pennsylvania, United States.

Playing Greece represents an ideal test for Nigeria.The Super Eagles are likely to be competing for second place in their World Cup group, behind Argentina, so their results against the other two teams in their group will be crucial.

Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina both play with similar styles to Greece, with more emphasis on organization and hard work than attacking flair.

Keshi is likely to select a more familiar looking team for this match than he did in the team’s last outing against Scotland.

He left John Obi Mikel, Vincent Enyeama and Kenneth Omeruo out of that game, but they are all expected to feature.

Nigeria managed a 2-2 draw with Scotland, courtesy of a late equalizer from UcheNwofor, and they will be hoping to go one better and secure a victory this time.

It would certainly do their confidence a great deal of good at just the right time.

It is tough to pick a winner in this match though, as Greece will be no pushovers.

They showed their defensive strength in their recent 0-0 draw with Portugal and they will be very difficult to break down.

The bookmakers have the Greeks as the favorites in the betting, but this is no guarantee they will win.

Betting on a team just because they are the favorites is as big as a mistake as betting on the underdog just because you can win more money.

You can avoid these betting mistakes  by actually putting some thought into what might happen.

If you choose to back one of the teams to win this match then make sure you choose which one for the right reasons, and not simply because of the odds.

One thing that will work in Nigeria’s favor is that the Greek defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos is likely to miss the game through injury.

He picked up a knock in the Portugal friendly and according to several sources – including Yahoo news  – he is set to sit this one out.

There is still plenty of talent in the Greece squad though, not least the attacking force of Giorgos Samaras and Kostas Mitroglou.

The Nigerians will need to stop those two seeing too much of the ball if they want to record a win. They will have a good chance if they can do that, but the Greeks may just prove too strong.

The most recent meeting between these two sides was at the South Africa World Cup four years ago. Greece edged that fixture 2-1, and it is likely to be just as close this time around.