Nigeria’s Super Eagles will compete with the Ukrainian national team, often nicknamed Yellow and Blue. This is the first time that the two teams have competed on the senior international level. The friendly match will be held at the Dnipro Arena in Kyiv on September 10, 2019.
A Little Background on the Super Eagles
The Nigerian Super Eagles have recently leaped twelve places in Fifa world rankings. This jump has been attributed to a third place finish at the Africa Cup of Nations event in Egypt last month. The Super Eagles are already far ahead in preparation and hopeful for the next event in Cameroon.
German born coach Gernot Roht is furiously shaking up the roster in an attempt to replace many of the players who will not be part of the team’s future and to find young, fresh blood. With only a year left on his contract, Roht himself is also expected to move away from the Nigerian team.
After the match in Kyiv, Nigeria moves back to the African continent to face the national teams of Togo, Benin, and Lesotho. All games are a part of the second round of the African Nations Championship.
A Little Background on Ukraine’s National Team
Ukraine’s head coach Andriy Shevchenko has named two Premier League players as part of his 24 man squad in September. This is in preparation for a busy month of football for the team that has been trying to recover from something of a losing streak of late, and after recent games with Serbia and Luxembourg, seems to be doing so.
The Yellow and Blue team will be facing off with the national team of Lithuania on 7th September, just three days before their match against Nigeria’s Super Eagles. Scheduled to be held in Vilnius, the game with Lithuania will be their European Championship qualifier. The outcome of the game in Vilnius could heavily affect the moral of the team against the Super Eagles.
After the match with Nigeria, Ukraine will continue European Cup qualifiers with games against Portugal, Estonia, and Serbia. The game against Portugal is expected to be particularly exciting, as the two teams tied at their last match in March.
The Expected Outcome
One of the exciting parts of this game is that it very well could go either way, as the recent tracklist of both has been similar. On the surface, Ukraine seems to have the upper hand by a small margin. On fctables.com, things don’t look particularly good for Nigeria’s Super Eagles. That being said, we are expecting a Nigerian victory.
The Ukrainian team will put more energy into their match on the seventh with Lithuania, because in the long run for them it is much more strategically important, as is their upcoming game with Portugal. Nigeria, on the other hand, will consider the match a prime opportunity to try out some of their newer players and styles, potentially putting them at an advantage.
The game can be watched live at eurosport.com. For those outside of Europe, it can be viewed easily if they download a VPN.
