Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli says Nigeria is a difficult opponent to dominate as they employ two different styles and formation depending on the opponent.
Nigeria played with a 4-2-3-1 formation in their loss to Croatia but reverted back to 3-5-2 which served them well in the qualifiers with Ahmed Musa who scored a brace against Iceland coming into the start line up.
Sampaoli analyzed the Nigeria during Monday afternoon’s pre-match press conference in St. Petersburg and mentioned Chelsea wing-back Victor Moses as one of the most important players in the Super Eagles squad.
The two-time world champions are not at their best level ahead of tomorrow’s match at Krestovsky Stadium, Saint Petersburg following their 3-0 loss to Croatia and 1-1 stalemate vs Iceland and there was talk of a mutiny leading up to the clash with Nigeria.
”Nigeria is a national team that play with two different formations, with Croatia almost a 4-3-3, now they are playing with almost 5-3-2,” Sampaoli stated.
”We have faced them and played them with two styles and formations. They have very relevant players with a lot of experience such as Moses and the team in the second half of the matches they tend to make the difference from the physical standpoint, and they tend to play from box to box.
”That makes them a very difficult opponent if you can’t dominate the game, so for for us Argentina we will have to control the game.”
Nigeria have kept seven clean-sheets in the World Cup to date and are likely to progress to the round of sixteen if they manage to stop Lionel Messi and co. from finding the back of the net.
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