Super Eagles Captain Mikel: We Believe We Can Win World Cup, England Good Test

Published: May 22, 2018

In a question and answer session on his official Twitter account, former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel shared his thoughts on the possibility of Nigeria becoming the first African country to win the World Cup in Russia and also commented on the upcoming friendly against England on June 2.

Mikel stressed that the three games against Croatia, Iceland and Argentina are very important and has predicted that the two countries that qualify from the group will do well in the tournament.

''It is possible to win it, you never know. It is important for us to come out of this group, we are in a very difficult group,'' Mikel stated.

''We have lots of good teams in this group, it is going to be interesting to see who comes out of this group, whoever comes out of this group is going to do well in the tournament.

''We have to make sure we play three games well, come out of the group and think about the next game, so it is possible when you keep winning games. We believe we can, so why not.''

On the friendly against England, Mikel said : ''It is going to be a very good test for us. It is important to play this friendly game against England, such a great team.

''For us, it is going to be a big test, we have to make sure we play well. We want to win, we want to play well against such a great team.

''It is going to be good for us, we want to see how well we are going to do in this game leading to the World Cup. This game is going to help us prepare.''

Mikel is one of six players in Nigeria's 30-man preliminary roster with World Cup experience, the others being Victor Moses, Elderson Echiejile, Ahmed Musa, Eddy Onazi and Kenneth Omeruo.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel