Super Eagles captain Mikel John Obi has predicted a ‘difficult’ game for Nigeria when they file out against Croatia in their 2018 FIFA World Cup Group D opener in Kaliningrad today, admitting that the Europeans are ‘a fantastic team’.

Nigeria confront the star-studded Croats in what would be their first-ever meeting at senior level, with the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona stars Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic expected to battle Mikel and Wilfred Ndidi for supremacy in the midfield.

“They (Croatia) are a good team. I think every team in this World Cup are very good team,” the former Chelsea star said. “There’s no easy team in this tournament, we know that.

“Croatia is a fantastic team with fantastic players. We have good players as well. So it’s going to be a difficult game. It’s going to be a game of tactics. But we have to play our game. We have to make sure we control the game like we always do.

“So it’s going to be tough, but we know how we want to play, and how we normally play. So we have to carry on playing that way,” the 31-year old star concluded.

The match comes up by 7pm local time (which is 8pm in Nigeria).