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Nigeria v Uruguay: Preview
African champions Nigeria will wrap up a spot in the Confederations Cup semi-finals next week with victory over Uruguay tomorrow.
La Celeste should provide sterner opposition than Tahiti, who made Nigeria’s task even easier than anticipated in the 6-1 win.
Meanwhile, Luis Suarez’s stunning 88th-minute free-kick was mere consolation for Uruguay as they were outclassed in their 2-1 defeat to Spain on Sunday, with the world and European champions claiming 71 per cent of possession.
Coach Oscar Tabarez is expected to name an unchanged side, which he believes will fare better against the Super Eagles.
“If Spain thrashed Italy and Germany, why should they not beat Uruguay? They are a team that imposes their conditions and are playing in a tournament that they have unfinished business with,” he said.
“The next match, against Nigeria, is the most important of all, if we win then I think we have a chance of being in the semi-finals.”
Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi may start Dynamo Kiev striker Brown Ideye after team-mates Anthony Ujah and Ahmed Musa struggled to convert chances against Tahiti.
Striker Nnamdi Oduamadi – who put four past the Polynesian island – is expected to keep his place, however.
In spite of his side’s comfortable win last time out, Keshi knows they need to be more ruthless in front of goal.
“The performance I expected from the players was not what they gave. They did better than that against Mexico and Namibia and I expect them to even do more when they play Uruguay on Thursday,” Keshi said.
“There are no (new) injuries to the players, because I have already lost four players (Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emenike, Ogenyi Onazi and Kalu Uche),” he said.
Nigeria have only kept one clean sheet in their past five games, despite not having lost since May last year when Peru overcame the Africans 1-0 in Lima.
