Nigeria have secured an international friendly date with two-time world champions Argentina for Tuesday November 14 in Russia.
The match between the 2018 Fifa World Cup-bound countries will be played at the Krasnodar Arena Stadium.
The General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mohammed Sanusi disclosed that nearly all arrangements have been concluded with regards to the big match, subject to approval by world football–ruling body, Fifa and agreeable flight arrangements.
“We have had long and fruitful talks, and we can say that we have an agreement. We await the approval by FIFA and also, we have to agree on the flight arrangements that would be comfortable for the players and crew,” Sanusi said.
“The match will come up on 14th November, four days after the Super Eagles’ final 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifying match away to Algeria.
“We had offers from teams like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Morocco but we have opted for the Argentines.”
The Eagles take on Algeria on Friday, November 10, while Argentina will take on World Cup hosts Russia same day in another friendly.
Nigeria and Argentina played two high –profile friendly matches in 2011, the first in Abuja in June ending 4-1 in favour of the Super Eagles.
The Albiceleste won the second encounter 3-1 in Dhaka, Bangladesh three months later.
While Argentina qualified for Russia on the final day of the South American qualification campaign, the Super Eagles have reached Russia with a match to spare.
Nigeria have had to confront Argentina in four of their previous five FIFA World Cup appearances, starting with a 2-1 defeat in Boston, USA in the African team’s debut in 1994. Argentina won another group phase clash 1-0 in Ibaraki, Japan in 2002, won a similar encounter by the same margin in Johannesburg, South Africa eight years later and then edged the Eagles 3-2 in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2014.
Other famous encounters between both nations include two final matches of the Olympic Men’s Football Tournament – Nigeria edging it in 1996 in America and the Argies winning by the odd goal in China 12 years later.
