Sadio Mane, Kelechi Iheanacho and Idrissa Gueye to play in friendly at Barnet... but oddly there could be just 1,400 watching Senegal vs Nigeria


The last time Sadio Mane pulled on a shirt for Senegal, the eyes of a continent were on the Liverpool man.

In the lead-up to the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final against Cameroon, Mane had been one of the players of the tournament, and Senegal, undoubtedly, the team of the competition.

But after a goalless draw with Cameroon, it came to Mane to take the decisive penalty. He saw it saved and proceeded to break down in tears, to such an extent that he couldn’t stand and had to be half-carried off the field by his team-mates.

Two months on, Mane, back to form with Liverpool and with the memories of that painful night in Gabon fading, will be back on international duty – but the setting will be very different.

Mane and his Senegal team-mates – featuring Premier League stars Idrissa Gueye, Cheikhou Kouyate, Alfred N’Diaye and Mame Biram Diouf – play their first game since the Cup of Nations on Thursday, at Barnet’s Hive stadium in north west London.

There they will meet a star-studded, but inconsistent, Nigeria team, who failed to even qualify for the Cup of Nations but are on course to make it to the World Cup in Russia.

They too are full of Premier League talent, with young forwards Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho an exciting prospect at international level, and Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi and Ahmed Musa are both still of interest, at least for their country, even if their club form has not always hit the heights.

It as a strange prospect – two giants of African football clashing in a cold corner of north west London. Nigeria have previously played friendlies at Fulham’s Craven Cottage, but this is a first for the Barnet ground.

In some ways it makes sense – both squads are predominantly based in Europe. Nigeria have just one player from their domestic league in their squad, Senegal two. It is far more convenient for top players to play in London or Paris – where Senegal meet Ivory Coast in their next game – than flying them to west Africa for a few days.

And The Hive, being a League 2 grounds, is not only far less expensive to hire than some of the bigger stadiums, it also has on-site training facilities, which make it a one-stop shop for travelling teams.

Coupled with a large British-Nigerian population in London – the 2011 census suggested over 100,000 Nigerian-born Brits live in the capital – it seems a decent prospect.

Indeed, you might expect a large appetite to see their stars in the flesh playing for the Super Eagles against top quality opposition. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

If you thought attendances were bad for tournaments like the Cup of Nations, where stadiums are often under half full, Thursday’s ticket sales are something of a shock.

With entry as little as £10 for adults in some areas, and £5 for under-14s, and such a plethora of Premier League stars on show, you would hope for a decent turn-out, given the dearth of quality football available during an international break.

The Hive holds a little over 6,000 fans, is incredibly easy to access by public transport, and is convenient for many of London’s vast number of football supporters. Surely it should be full for a showpiece fixture, even if it is a friendly?

But sales have been sluggish, perhaps because few fans know the game is even due to happen. Behind the goal at one end, in the most central block, just 11 of the 480 tickets have been sold, while along one side of the pitch there are blocks where not a seat has been taken.

A Barnet spokesman told Sportsmail that they are hopeful to be around their usual League Two attendance, between 1,400 and 1,900, which would still leave 4,000 empty seats.

There is still time for those sales to pick up, of course. The game doesn’t kick off until 8pm on Thursday, and there ought to be plenty who just show up on the door.

But given fans of Barnet are unlikely to witness the likes of Mane, Iwobi and Iheanacho in the league any time soon in a different context, it’s something of a surprise so few have sold so far.


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