Nigeria captain Mikel John Obi says the Super Eagles are not under pressure to deliver the goods at this year’s World Cup in Russia.

The Eagles are drawn in a difficult Group D comprising 2-time champions Argentina, debutants, Iceland and Croatia, who they face on Saturday in their opening encounter in Kaliningrad by 8pm Nigerian time.

“For us, we have no pressure. We want to do exactly what we want to do,” the 31-year old former Chelsea midfielder told a press conference at Essentuki. “We put pressure on ourselves; we don’t let outside people put pressure on us. We put pressure on ourselves to do well. We want to do well (at the World Cup).

The experienced midfielder admitted that Nigeria are in a tough group but remains optimistic that the team can qualify for the second round, drawing inspiration from the qualifiers where the Eagles beat Algeria, Cameroon and Zambia to the sole World Cup ticket in Group B.

“Yes, it is a group of death, it’s a very difficult group but same like in the qualifiers coming into the World Cup, we were in a very difficult group but we managed to qualify and topped the group.

“So, hopefully we can use same motivation like we did in the qualifiers, and start each game. One game counts, every game counts.

“So we want to start the game on Saturday on a positive way. If we get a good result, then we can build on that. And hopefully, we can qualify from the group.”