The Three Lions eye win over Nigeria in a Pre World Cup friendly
Kick-off : 5:15 PM (Local)
Venue : Wembley Stadium, London
England qualified for the world cup with ease, undefeated and are one of the favorites for the title. The expectations will be high from them. England will play a couple of friendlies before the tournament in Russia begins to warm them up.
England will play Nigeria on the 2nd of June and then Costa Rica on the 7th of June. It’s a great opportunity for the England manager, Gareth Southgate to work out the playing combinations. England have their opening game of the world cup against Tunisia on the 18th of June.
On the other hand, Nigeria also qualified without much difficulties and eliminated fellow African giants Cameroon in the process. The Super Eagles now have a good opportunity to test themselves by playing a few warm-up games ahead of the world cup.
Nigeria are in Group D in the world cup along with Argentina, Croatia and Iceland. Nigeria will play their first game against Croatia on the 16th June.
So far England and Nigeria have played each other on a couple of occasions. England have won once and drawn once.
Team news and possible line-ups
John Obi Mikel will captain Nigeria on Saturday against England. While Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Victor Moses are all available and will likely play.
As for England, Kyle Walker, John Stones and Harry Kane are available and will play. Also Gareth Southgate might want to give debuts to Nick Pope and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Nigeria XI : Ezenwa, Balogun, Echiejile, Omeruo, Troost-Ekong, Obi, Onazi, Ndidi, Moses, Iwobi, Iheanacho.
England XI : Pickford, Walker, Stones, Maguire, Trippier, Rose, Dier, Loftus-Cheek, Sterling, Alli, Kane.
Prediction
I expect England to win this game 4-2.
