The Super Eagles will play the last of their three-match friendly run with what promises to be the hardest game of the series when they meet Russia, today in Moscow.
The Super Eagles kicked off the friendly run against Ghana, whom they beat 2-1 in the opening game of the 2025 Unity Cup before triumphing over Jamaica in the final of the championship held at Brentford’s Gtech Stadium, in London, England.
The team then flew to the Russian capital on Monday to prepare for this battle with Sbornaya (The Boys) at the 78,000-capacity Luzhniki Stadium this night.
This is the first official meeting for both countries at senior level, and though Russia have not played competitively since February 2022, they have been busy playing friendly games, the last one being a 5-0 routing of Zambia’s Chipolopolo at the VTB Arena in Moscow on March 25. The win took their winning streak to eight games.
Nigeria, which defeated Rwanda 2-0 in Kigali in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match on March 21, were held to a 1-1 draw at home four days later by Zimbabwe in the same series before last week defeats of Ghana and Jamaica in London.
While still in the form of that single and mammoth USSR, the Soviet Union hosted the FIFA World Youth Championship (now FIFA U20 World Cup) in 1985. The host nation defeated Nigeria 2-1 in a group phase match in Minsk, but when both teams clashed in the tournament’s third-place match, Nigeria triumphed 3-1 after a penalty shootout following 0-0 in regulation and extra time in Moscow.
However, Nigeria’s most memorable encounter with the old Soviet Union was the ‘Dammam Miracle’ in 1989 when the Flying Eagles came from 4-0 down to equalise and went on to win their quarterfinal game at the FIFA U-20 World in Saudi Arabia.
Today, Coach Eric Sekou-Chelle is expected to parade a squad capable of earning a critical win for Nigeria to sustain the winning mentality built from the Unity Cup tournament, and also set their eyes confidently on an even more critical couple of 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches coming up in September.
The Super Eagles, lying fourth in their group, will host Rwanda’s Amavubi in the first week of September, and fly out to Johannesburg four days later to tackle group leaders Bafana Bafana of South Africa in what could be a flaming war.
Injuries and withdrawals have combined to tweak Sekou-Chelle’s ensemble for this encounter, but the spine of the squad is largely intact, even when Stanley Nwabali, Ademola Lookman, Ola Aina, Alex Iwobi, Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze are missing from the team.
Goalkeeper Maduka Okoye has another opportunity to reign between the sticks, with Igoh Ogbu and Benjamin Fredericks tugging for the rearguard shirts with captain William Ekong, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Bruno Onyemaechi and Semi Ajayi.
A rich midfield cast includes Frank Onyeka, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Raphael Onyedika, Christantus Uche, Papa Daniel and Saviour Isaac. Much will be expected of Victor Boniface, Simon Moses and Tolu Arokodare in the attack, as Krasnodar FC’s former junior international Olakunle Olusegun hopes for his first senior cap.
The iconic Luzhniki Stadium hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup Final, in which France defeated Croatia 4-2. During the competition, Russia defeated Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the group phase, and also eliminated Spain 4-3 after penalty shootout in the Round of 16, at the same Luzhniki Stadium. The game will kick off at 8.00 p.m. Russia time (6.00 p.m. Nigeria).
