Sub 20 World Cup: the path of Nigeria, Argentina’s next rival

On Sunday it was determined that the Argentina’s rival in the round of 16 of the U20 World Cup will be Nigeria. After the resolution of group E, it was confirmed that Japan, third in group C, was left out of the competition, so the African team, which finished in third place in D, with the same points as Brazil and Italy but worse goal difference, will be measured against the selected host.

The World Cup in Nigeria

Nigeria disputes its 13th Youth World Cup and his other best performance, in addition to the runner-up in 2005, was when he also played in the final of the 1989 edition that he lost to Portugal. The Eagles qualified for this World Cup after finishing in third place in the African Cup of Nations which was held at the beginning of the year.

The squad arrived in the country on May 8 in Buenos Aires and during the preparation they played a friendly against Almirante Brown’s substitutes which ended in a 2-2 draw.

Nigeria fell into the “group of death” along with Brazil and Italy plus the rookie Dominican Republic. Despite the difficulty of the area, the team led by Ladan Bosso it finished with two wins, one loss, four goals for and three against.

debuted with victory against Dominican (2-1), after overtook Italy by (2-0), both in Mendoza, and closed with loss to Brazil (2-0), in La Plata.

The only antecedent

Argentina and Nigeria they met only once in the history of the Under 20 World Cups and the result was favorable for the Albiceleste team.

The crossing was nothing more and nothing less than in the final of 2005, where with two goals from Lionel Messi, the team led by Francisco Ferraro beat the team led by John Obi Mikel 2-1 and became champion in the Netherlands. That World Cup was the fifth of the six world titles that the albiceleste won in the category.

When will Argentina-Nigeria be played for the round of 16 of the World Cup?

The match will be held in San Juan, Wednesday, May 31 at 6:00 p.m.in it San Juan del Bicentennial Stadium. The winner of this crossing will face in the quarterfinals the winner of the duel between Ecuador and South Korea.

BP