Sunday Oliseh: This Is The Time To Beat Argentina

Former Super Eagles captain and head coach, Sunday Oliseh, has revealed that this is the right time for the team to beat Argentina and that the three-time African champions can capitalise on the chaos in the camp of the former World Cup winners.

Argentina head coach Jorge Sampaoli has been under severe pressure with his players reportedly revolting against him after a wretched Russia 2018 World Cup start in Group D.

The former champions have just one point from two games and will need to beat Nigeria to qualify for the knockout stage.

However, Sunday Oliseh believes it’s time for Nigeria to avenge previous defeats to Argentina by capitalising on their woes to secure victory when both teams meet at the Saint Petersburg Stadium in St. Petersburg on Tuesday night, despite a good record of four victories in four games from previous World Cup editions.

Oliseh was speaking about the Eagles’ World Cup campaign in Group D in a chat with Brila FM

In his words, he said: “Nigeria’s campaign started in the second half against Iceland. People saw that Croatia was difficult. They must beat Argentina.”

“I think we have a good coach, but we (Nigeria) can beat this this Argentina side. Their team (Argentina) of 2014 is better than this one. They have infighting in the team, so this is a time Nigeria have to win.

“We must be aware that this is the time Messi and others will want to play their best game. We have no choice but not give  Lionel Messi any chance. But we can’t  also give too much attention to Messi. He  has other ‘generals’  but its looking good for us.”

On the role of team captain John Mikel Obi, Oliseh said: “The best role that fits a player is the position the coach decides for him. Against Iceland, we used two strikers, we had three defenders on them.

“Mikel was very good in front of the defense. Musa was great. He is a good player and has a nice sense of humour, that’s one of the reasons I made him captain of the team when I was the coach. Etebo did very well, Balogun, and Uzoho too who used his height well. Ebuehi who came in the second half did well too.” He concluded.

On his Russia 2018 World Cup wish, he said: “I will love to see Belgium play Nigeria in the knockout stages of the World Cup. Let’s hope by Wednesday morning, we’ll be happy that we qualified for the round of 16.”