Former Super Eagles technical adviser Bonfrere Jo has backed the team to go beyond the benchmark of last 16 at the forthcoming FIFA World Cup in Russia.

The Dutchman, however, stated that the Gernot Rohr-led team must play as a team to have any chance of setting a new World Cup record of at least a quarterfinal place when hostilities begin on June 14 in Russia.

He was speaking about the Super Eagles and their chances at the World Cup on Thursday in an interview with Arise TV.

In his words, Bonfrere Jo, who led the Dream Team to a historic Olympic Gold medal, said: “Nigeria still has up to nine days till when the Super Eagles will play their first game against Croatia. Now is the time to let the players know the opposition they are going to face and the quality in each of the players of the Croatian team.”

“From the losses in the friendlies, the coaches should be able to tell each player what the problem was in the areas they covered and amendments made. Let me tell, from what I have seen of Nigerian players, they are all faster than nearly all the players from Europe coming to this World Cup. They have more technic than most other players. However, I want to say that I really don’t know most of the current players so it will be difficult for me to hazard a guess. If they pay as a team, they can go far beyond the second Round that has become Nigeria’s benchmark.

“In Europe, when a player has the ball, he has five players opening up for him to choose where to send the ball but in the present Nigerian situation from the friendlies that I have seen, when a Super Eagles player has the ball, he wants to do things of five people all alone and there is no support around him and things don’t work like that.” he concluded.