Nigeria take on Mali in their second fixture of this international break, with interim manager Finidi George looking to continue the momentum from their friendly victory over rivals Ghana as Nigeria assess options for coaches to continue on from Jose Peseiro.
Mali come into this match on the back of a victory over Mauritania and a strong AFCON performance, where they bowed out to eventual winners Ivory Coast.
We spoke to Bet9ja Ambassador Victor Ikpeba for his thoughts ahead of the match.
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International friendlies are a pressure-free environment
Between AFCON and the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, this is the only opportunity that Nigeria will have to play without any real pressure and for Finidi George to select his team with a view to seeing which players are of international calibre.
He is just interim manager so I wasn’t expecting a dramatic stylistic overhaul during these matches, but it is important that Nigeria build on their momentum from AFCON, where they performed much better than expected. The Ghana match was a good start to that.
Maintain our strengths and build on our weaknesses
Against all odds, our defense was what took us through AFCON, and now that we have that solidity it is important that we don’t lose it. We have enough gifted players in the attacking third to rely on when the system isn’t working as well as we need, but defensive strength is a team effort and not something that you can rely on one player to provide.
Mali are a dangerous side with a lot of athletic, tricky players. We need to ensure that the players who come in are ready to slot into the system that we’ve developed over the last few months, and allow the stars to shine further up the pitch.
Victor’s Prediction – Nigeria 2-1 Mali
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