Football | Super Eagles
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Super Eagles midfielder, Sunday Mba will be watching
Friday’s 2014 Fifa World Cup draws with interest and will not be
disappointed if the African champions are eventually handed a tough
draw.
The 25-year-old reckons that the competition will give players of
the Super Eagles a chance to “really know the level reached” and that
only a meeting with the world’s finest will see that achieved.
“Some people have been praying that we avoid certain countries but the truth is we really should be prepared to meet teams like Brazil, Spain and Germany so that we can really know the level we have reached. I will personally want us to meet teams like that” the midfielder exclusively told supersport.com.
Mba knows the Super Eagles are not among the favourites to win the title in Brazil but insists a surprise could be on the cards.
“No African team has even reached the semi finals of a World Cup before so it will be very difficult for us to win it.
“However, there are surprise teams in every World Cup and with the spirit in the (Nigeria) team right now, we could shock anybody on our day,” said Mba who has earned 17 caps and scored five goals for Nigeria.
Nigeria will be making a fifth appearance at the World Cup finals.
In 1994, Clemens Westerhof assembled a highly-entertaining team that reached the second round at the first attempt where they lost 2-1 to Italy after extra time in the United States.
Four years later in France, a more experienced Nigeria side surprising lost 1-4 to Denmark in the second round after pundits had tipped the Africans to go all the way following an unlikely triumph at the Olympic Games in Atlanta two years previously.
Nigeria failed to advance past the group stages at the 2002 and 2012 World Cups.
Pots of teams for Friday’s draw
Pot 1 (top eight seeds): Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay
Pot 2: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador
Pot 3: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras
Pot 4: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, France
“Some people have been praying that we avoid certain countries but the truth is we really should be prepared to meet teams like Brazil, Spain and Germany so that we can really know the level we have reached. I will personally want us to meet teams like that” the midfielder exclusively told supersport.com.
Mba knows the Super Eagles are not among the favourites to win the title in Brazil but insists a surprise could be on the cards.
“No African team has even reached the semi finals of a World Cup before so it will be very difficult for us to win it.
“However, there are surprise teams in every World Cup and with the spirit in the (Nigeria) team right now, we could shock anybody on our day,” said Mba who has earned 17 caps and scored five goals for Nigeria.
Nigeria will be making a fifth appearance at the World Cup finals.
In 1994, Clemens Westerhof assembled a highly-entertaining team that reached the second round at the first attempt where they lost 2-1 to Italy after extra time in the United States.
Four years later in France, a more experienced Nigeria side surprising lost 1-4 to Denmark in the second round after pundits had tipped the Africans to go all the way following an unlikely triumph at the Olympic Games in Atlanta two years previously.
Nigeria failed to advance past the group stages at the 2002 and 2012 World Cups.
Pots of teams for Friday’s draw
Pot 1 (top eight seeds): Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Switzerland, Uruguay
Pot 2: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador
Pot 3: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras
Pot 4: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, France
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