Mexico coach Gerardo Martino reveals why The Tricolor are facing Nigeria in friendly on July 3

Published: May 19, 2021

The Mexico Football Federation have confirmed that their national team, The Tricolor will face three-time African champions Nigeria in a friendly on July 3.

The friendly will hold at United Airlines Field at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Los Angeles, California) as part of the US tour and preparations for the Concacaf Gold Cup.

This is the fourth game scheduled by the Mexico Football Federation in the MexTour2021 agenda, which includes the following games: on May 29 against Iceland, on June 12 against Honduras and on June 30 against Panama.

Speaking to the official website of the Mexican Federation, national team coach Gerardo Martino gave his view on why they are facing Nigeria - a team from a different confederation.

"It is a different rival, it brings a different competitiveness to what we have been playing and that we already need, beyond what which represents playing with Panama or Honduras, which is a bit of deepening about our zone rivals, because the qualifiers are coming and it is good that we do so," Martino explained.

"Having totally dissimilar confrontations, in fact, Holland, Wales, Algeria, Japan, South Korea and now Nigeria, are totally different rivals and somehow we are seeing a little beyond the short term".

Mexico and Nigeria have met five times, the first time in 1995 and the last in 2014, with El Tri winning once and drawing four games; their only official match was in the 1995 Confederations Cup, which ended one goal apiece.

Igho Kingsley

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