Tianjin Teda of China star, John Mikel Obi has declared that the Super Eagles will not think about playing against Argentina before their first two matches at the World Cup against Croatia and Iceland, as he says they must not put the cart before the horse.
While reflecting on Nigeria’s chances of making history in Russia, the Eagles captain said they will simply take each match as they come, think of one before the other, and pointed out that, with good preparation, they can emerge winners of the tournament.
Mikel further expressed optimism that the team will surprise the world by going farther than any Nigerian team has done in the competition.
Nigeria’s best placing in their previous four appearances at the competition was the second finish in 1994,1998 and 2014 and Mikel is confident the team will surpass that record.
The Eagles will open their campign on June 16 against Croatia at the Kaliningrad Stadium in Kaliningrad before playing Iceland six days later at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd.
Nigeria’s last game is against Argentina whom they have four times at the World Cup.The game will hold at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg.
The former Chelsea star noted: “We are in a very difficult group, but it is possible for us to win the World Cup as we will take one game after the other for us to come out of our group. We believe we can win the tournament.
”I think we are in a group where we can do something. It depends on our preparations and how much we want it, not just we have qualified let’s just go and play the World Cup.
”We want to make history, we want to do well. We want to make sure we go there believing we can beat Argentina, Croatia and Iceland.”
