Obi Mikel Mentions Similarities Between Nigeria And Croatia Team

Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel was evasive when he was asked questions about the Croatian National Team and their players at Friday's pre-match press conference.

However, the former Chelsea midfielder replied to a question from a journalist working for Croatia National Television about his experience playing with Croatia National Team players, especially their top man Luka Modric, who represented Tottenham Hotspur for four years before moving to Real Madrid in the summer of 2012.

''I don't want to talk about Croatian National Team, I think it is better for us to focus on our team right now. we need to focus on our team and ourselves,'' Mikel said.

''Croatian team, great team, good players but for us come tomorrow, it is 11 vs 11. We have to play, they like to have the ball.

''They like to play, we like to do the same, it's going to be a very interesting game.

''We see what happens, they have a good team, we have a good team. We have a younger team, maybe that's going to help us towards the end of the game, who knows. ''

Nigeria have the youngest squad at the 2018 World Cup, with an average age of 25.9 years, but Mikel does not think it's a problem for the team.

''In football in this tournament, you take each game as it comes. Sometimes, experience counts, sometimes as well youthfulness counts, full of energy.

''Players have a lot to prove, they haven't been in this stage before, so I think in a way it will help us, maybe in a way it might be a problem.

''We have been playing like this the whole year or a year and a half, we can't change it now, we have to play with the players that we've been playing with and do exactly what we have been doing before.

''Hopefully, we can achieve a lot of things in this tournament with this young team mixed with a little bit of experience.

''We have a very good blend and hopefully this will work out very well for us,'' the Nigeria number ten added.

Nigeria will take on Croatia in their World Cup opener at the Arena Baltika in Kaliningrad Stadium, starting from 2000 hours.

Igho Kingsley