Nigeria: Eagles Vs Argentina Sets Abuja Alight

Ismaila Lere

1 June 2011

Nigeria and Argentina square up against each other for the first time on Nigerian soil at the mainbowl of the Abuja National Stadium tonight. It is the fifth meeting between both countries at senior level, with Argentina having narrowly edged three of the previous meetings while a group stage clash at the Intercontinental Tournament for the King Fahd Cup (now FIFA Confederations Cup) in Riyadh in January 1995 ended scoreless.

Argentina won 2-1 at the 1994 World Cup in the USA and then defeated the Super Eagles 1-0 at the 2002 and 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in Japan and South Africa respectively.

Only 25,000 tickets for the Category A section have been put up for sale but a near full house is expected as several tickets have been won in Guinness promotions and top Government officials, guests of Guinness and the Nigeria Football Federation, members of the Diplomatic Corp and captains of industry will storm the venue for the highest profile international friendly match involving Nigeria since June 2003, when five-time world champions Brazil won 3-0 at the same venue.

The match referees from Niger Republic are led by Ibrahim Chaibou, who is nearing the end of his international career after handling almost 50 international matches.

Over 5,000 security persons have been deployed for the match, with the Inspector General of Police having approved the deployment of a full complement of security agencies, including anti-terrorist, mobile police, surveillance squad, bomb disposal and mounted troop forces.

All spectators are expected to pass through the Area 1 Gate leading to the Stadium.

The Super Eagles will wear their familiar all-green jersey, while the Argentines will turn out in blue-and-white stripe top and black shorts. The referees will be in red.

There will be a one-minute silence for Super Eagles’ defender Olubayo Adefemi, who died in a car crash in Greece on April 18, and the two teams will wear black armbands in his honour.

Megastar musician TuFace will sing the Nigeria National Anthem in a duet with the winner of a Guinness Promotion for the rendition.

Organizers have also provided the incentive of an exquisitely shaped trophy for the winner, with medals for the losers and match officials.

Yesterday afternoon, Coaches Samson Siasia and Sergio Batista, as well as Captains Joseph Yobo and Pablo Zabaletta answered questions from the media at a pre-match press conference at the Transcorp Hilton hotel, where both teams expressed great expectation ahead of the big game.

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