Nigeria battle Senegal in London tonight
An interesting match is at hand as Nigeria seeks a 10th top flight win over Senegal in 21 clashes.
Venue is The Hive, home ground of League 2 teams Barnet FC and London Bees. About 3,000 spectators are expected to watch the African giants battle at the 6,000 capacity ground.
Both nations first clashed at senior level on February 27, 1963, Nigeria winning an Nkrumah Cup game 4-0; but the Senegalese replied in equal measure six weeks later, hammering the Eagles 5-1 in a Friendship Games match in Dakar.
Senegal then stopped Nigeria from the race to the Munich ’72 Olympics, winning 3-2 on aggregate, but Nigeria also constituted stumbling block to Senegal in the race to the 1978 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana, winning 4-3 on aggregate.
Nigeria defeated host Senegal 2-1 in the opening match of the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations, and won by the same margin when eliminating the Teranga Lions in the quarter-finals of the 2000 edition Nigeria co-hosted with Ghana.
The Lions paid back by beating Nigeria (same scoreline) in the semi-finals of the 2002 Cup of Nations in Mali.
But Nigeria have won the past two encounters between both nations, both at the 2006 Cup of Nations in Egypt: a group phase match in Port Said that ended 2-1 and the bronze medal match that ended 1-0 in Cairo.
Match officials
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistant Referee 1: Harry Lennard
Assistant Referee 2: Constantine Hatzidakis
Reserve Referee: Andre Marriner
Senegal will arrive at The Hive pumped-up after becoming Africa’s highest ranked team, and despite failing to light up the Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon, are a tough call any day.
Liverpool FC’s Sadio Mane, as well as Mame Biram Diouf, Cheikh Kouyate and Idrissa Gueye are among their top performers.
Nigeria boast a young and vibrant squad that has been achieving results of late, with the likes of Leon Balogun, William Ekong, Abdullahi Shehu, Wilfred Ndidi, Oghenekaro Etebo, John Ogu, Kelechi Iheanacho, Moses Simon and Alex Iwobi now joined by Tyrone Ebuehi, Chidozie Awaziem, Isaac Success, Olanrewaju Kayode and new boy Noah Bazee.
Akpeyi, Ekong, Shehu and Etebo were in the Nigeria U23 team that took bronze at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Yet, the spine is still there with the experienced Ogenyi Onazi, Kenneth Omeruo, Elderson Echiejile and Ahmed Musa also here in camp.
Onazi, Omeruo and Kayode were in the Nigeria squad that finished second at the FIFA U17 World Cup in 2009. Ndidi, Iheanacho, Success and Musa Muhammed were in the Nigeria U17 squad in 2013.
Source: TheNFF.com
