The Super Eagles on Sunday evening arrived London ahead of Monday’s all important grade A friendly against Italy in London. The match is scheduled for Craven Cottage the home ground of Premier League side, Fulham.
After thumping Ethiopia 2-0 in Calabar on Saturday evening, to become Africa’s first qualifier for the Brazil 2014 World Cup, the team departed Calabar venue of the match on Sunday morning at about 8am via an Arik Air plane to Lagos. From Lagos, players and officials of the team joined a Virgin Atlantic Airliner for the six hour trip to London.
The team arrived London Heathrow Airport at about 4:10pm London time, which is 5:10 pmNigerian time and was promptly checked into the Hilton Hotel in Cobham, by organisers of the friendly. Unfortunately, the team could not train because of the cold weather and had to shift training to Monday morning ahead of the game in the evening.
All the players led by Skipper Vincent Enyeama expressed confidence that they will give a good account of themselves in the encounter. Sadly though, striker Victor Obinna Nsofor is ruled out of the encounter due to the injury he copped in the game against Ethiopia, though he is here in London with the team.
A scan will be carried out on Monday by team medics to determine the extent of the injury. Nsofor said he hopes to bounce back to action in a quick time and regretted missing the friendly against Italy. “I woulkd really love to have play this game but there is nothing I can do now because of the injury”, he said.
