Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi, was right when he told the Nigerian Football Federation to be realistic when he was asked to ensure that Nigeria gets to the Semi-final stage of the World Cup in Brazil.

Keshi educated the officials by telling them that the World Cup tournament featured the best footballing countries in the world and not a single country participating at the tournament should be underestimated.

Keshi spoke before the draws were made last month when Nigerians discovered that the Super Eagles will be playing against Iran, Bosnia-Herzgovinia and Argentina in Group F. Despite the relief felt by Nigerians, Keshi’s caution still cannot be ignored. For instance in the latest FIFA ranking, Bosnia-Herzgovinia is ranked 21 ahead of Nigeria’s 36 so we have no reasons to believe our match against them will be a walk-over.

Iran on the other hand is ranked 45 but this is still no indication that we can easily win our match against them.

Having considered other strengths like experience and exposure of players, however, many leading European football analysts predict that Argentina and Nigeria would qualify from that group.

These football analysts also believe that if Argentina tops the group they have a clear route to the semi-finals.

Nigeria on the other hand may be heading towards the quarter-final stage if the players and the NFF get their acts together and that is a big ‘IF’.
Assuming Nigeria qualifies in second place from the group we would be meeting the winners of group E, most likely France or Switzerland.

It’s not entirely impossible for Switzerland to emerge as winners of Group E and face Nigeria in the Round of Sixteen.

Again, I’m not saying it will be a walk over because Switzerland shocked the world when they beat eventual champions, Spain, 1-0 at the 2010 World Cup and hopefully for them Fulham’s Sanderos, formerly of Arsenal, will remain fit. Apart from that, Switzerland now have the best ever team they have assembled in history.

What I’m saying is that it could have been Brazil, Spain or Germany but thankfully it’s not. Its only Switzerland and Sanderos can be contained.

The other likely opponent, France, shouldn’t be a threat either. Let’s face it, the glory days of France are over. The days of Henry, Deschamps, Barthez and Patrick Vierra are over. Nigeria should be able to hold its own against France should we meet them at the second round of the competition.

It’s not impossible for Nigeria to qualify for the quarter-final stage of the World Cup for the first time in Brazil.

It’s at that stage that we are likely to meet the German machine or Christiano Ronaldo’s Portugal or worse still, the star studded Belgian national team and almost certain to be sent packing from the competition.

Caveat: It would be completely unwise for anyone to stake money on the accuracy of the predictions above as the variables are too numerous.



- See more at: http://www.urnaija.com/world-cup-draws-quarter-finals-achievable-for-eagles/

What will my beloved Super eagles do with quarter final, is either we win the World Cup or no round of sixteen or quarter final either.

Contrary to the report's claim, virtually all european football analyst has tipped Argentina and Bosnia to qualify from Group F.

emiye: Contrary to the report's claim, virtually all european football analyst has tipped Argentina and Bosnia to qualify from Group F.

Thanks for your contribution but analysts writing for the "Independent" a well respected daily publication in the UK tipped Nigeria and Argentina. Could you please provide a link or source for your claim? Very much appreciated.

[size=28pt]if we can top our group one way or the other

we will go very far!!!!!![/size]

Ojowanle:

Thanks for your contribution but analysts writing for the "Independent" a well respected daily publication in the UK tipped Nigeria and Argentina. Could you please provide a link or source for your claim? Very much appreciated.

just seeing this, apart from espn, all other european football analysis i encountered tipped bosnia ahead nigeria, except the americans who seemed to have a higher opinion of us. I do not share the opinion in the link below btw.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1878878-world-cup-predictions-2014-projections-for-all-groups-after-critical-draw

http://www.bsports.com/world-cup

I pity you if you think sanderos is the only player to be wary of in the swiss squad. Ever heard the name xherdan shaqiri?

[quote author=emiye]
just seeing this, apart from espn, all other european football analysis i encountered tipped bosnia ahead nigeria, except the americans who seemed to have a higher opinion of us. I do not share the opinion in the link below btw.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1878878-world-cup-predictions-2014-projections-for-all-groups-after-critical-draw

http://www.bsports.com/world-cup[/quote

Thanks for the insight. I'd say, 'interesting'. The second link, Bsports even went ahead to predict all the way to the final. How over-ambitious of them. When I said most European analysts, I meant the serious ones who have been in the business long before every Tom, Dick and Harry could set up a website and start making predictions. People like espn that you mentioned.

adegwurulez: I pity you if you think sanderos is the only player to be wary of in the swiss squad. Ever heard the name xherdan shaqiri?

No sir, I haven't heard of him but I've heard of Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Oscar, Torres, Rooney, Benteke, Hazard, Pique and Xavi. The list is endless. I'm not underrating any player who is qualified and selected to play at the World Cup. The point is that if I haven't heard of him maybe it's because he is not much of a threat.

Thanks for your contribution, anyway. Really appreciate you joining the debate.

At the end of the day Nigeria may become the weeping baby of the group and lose to Iran that everybody believes we can beat.

I was only saying we may have a good chance of getting to the Q-finals because we are not likely to meet any very serious opposition like Brazil, Spain, Germany or Belgium on the way. The chance is for them to blow and knowing Nigerian players they may very well blow it.

Even though some peeps r alwys pessimistic abt my homeboys...for me I don't doubt dia ability of lifting the world cup...they can do it n so I belief.

@ojowanle. Trust me, i'm with you. What i'm saying is, you cannot just conclude and say 'if we can contain sanderos then we can contain switzerland.' No, you do not hear the name shaqiri not because he is not good but because he is sorrounded by top rated stars in bayern munich. As a winger, he just has to play second fiddle to the likes of robben and ribery.

Now, there are some players who are doing their duties quietly but yet dangerously. Shaqiri is one of such. He has pace, strenght and skills. Reminds me of Quaresma(whatever happened to that guy). Do you know that Quaresma was rated as the next ronaldinho? Even rated higher than ronaldo. But Quaresma was doing his thing silently in porto until his oblivion. Try watching the bundesliga and you will know the kind of player shaqiri is.

@adegwurulez. Thanks again for your intelligent and unbiased insight, my guy. I will go and read up about this guy. Unfortunately, there's very little people like you and I can do if the Super Eagles coaching crew dont get a comprehensive, one-on-one assessment of every single player in the other teams including our likely opponents in the second round and quarter-finals. Lord knows they have all the time in the world to do that.

@ojawanle. Thank God you understand my point. we shouldn't just sit down and pinpoint one person as the star of a team and give all our attention to that person. As we are facing argentina, if three players are marking messi, two are on Aguero and two on di maria, how many players would be left to play the game? We would end up parking the bus and that isn't the best option. Switzerland also have players like djorou and inler. So my guy, the swiss team is a complete team.