The Heavyweights That Stand In Nigeria's Route To Playing in World Cup Final

Published: June 06, 2018

Nigeria will begin their 2018 World Cup hostilities in Russia with a clash which looks decisive in many regard, against The Blazers of Croatia 10 days away at the Baltika Arena, Kaliningrad.

Not only that game has so much riding on it, but could generally define how far the Super Eagles will go in the tournament this year.

A win puts them well on course, with most likely Argentina who must have squared off against the other Group D opponent, Iceland before then.

It should be noted that the national team have failed to win any of their last three opening games at the tournament.

Their second outing pits them against modest but dangerous Iceland. If Iceland come into that game having lost to Argentina, our Boys will surely be reeling and will want to stake claim and possibly pick up their first point(s).

That said, manager Gernot Rohr is not under any illusion as to what failure to pick up maximum points in this one would mean for his team.

So assuming, two wins from the first two games is to happen, that precisely sets the Eagles up nicely and even gives them second round qualification, regardless of what happens versus favourites, Argentina. Easier said than done, right?

It is of course, in the knock out stages that things gets serious and really interesting. Nigeria are most expected to contest for the second spot in Group D with Croatia. But second spot could mean a lot of danger is looming. Still searching for answers? Let's see.

Nigeria's Round of 16 opponents are to come from Group C, a pool which has one-time tournament winners, France as well as Peru, Australia and Denmark.

Nigerians would wince by the mere mention of the former, with the 2-0 loss to the Les Bleus four years ago still fresh in memory, but will be confident of getting a result against any of the other teams.

Should Nigeria qualify as runner-ups and pull off the unthinkable by disposing of France (we are tipping them to come away from Group C as winners), then, there is huge belief in what they can achieve from that stage.

With the semifinal bringing with it some added excitement, Group E, F, G and H are expected to produce the semifinalists either of which can be Brazil, Germany, Belgium, England, Poland among others.

If Nigeria can navigate their way to get to this stage, they would surely be brimming with confidence of facing up to any of the teams they get to play in the showpiece while falling at that hurdle which is already a mountainous achievement leaves them with one last game to take in, the third-place clash for ousted semifinalists.

Emmanuel Chinaza

Photo Credit : Twitter.com/alexiwobi