Croatia head coach, Zlatko Dalic, has confirmed that his team will face Peru and Mexico in friendly games in March ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia where they will play in Group D along with Nigeria, Argentina and Iceland. The Croats will face the Super Eagles of Nigeria in their opening game at the mundial on June 16 at the Kaliningrad Stadium, Kaliningrad.
They will also come up against two-time world champion Argentina and fellow Europeans Iceland in the same group. Dalic also stated that officials of the Croatia Football Federation are working hard to arrange a friendly game against an African team with a similar style to Nigeria.
”I made my plan known to the president of the football federation and we come to an agreement for the friendlies against Peru and Mexico to be played in March,”Dalic said “In the past fifteen days, I’ve been talking to all the players, explaining to them what I want. They agreed to go to the United States if this option was confirmed. And let’s play two strong matches there. “Of course, we all have to go, compete and get healthy.
Well, other players from Real Madrid and Barcelona travel from Europe to play for Argentina and Brazil, so we cannot talk about fatigue. We need strong matches, that is the way it should be.” “Then we hope to play two more games in June.
The first one will be early in the month and the second on June 8 or 9 before leaving for Russia. One of them should be with an African team with a similar style to Nigeria.”
Igbonu dedicates new Lekki house in Lagos
Several Nigerian football players turned out to celebrate with FC UFA forward, Sylvester Igbonu, on Christmas day as he dedicated his newly built massive 12-bedroom mansion in Chevron Estate, Lekki, Lagos.
The building is Igbonu’a sixth in Lagos. Lukman Haruna, Rilwan Hassan, Izunna Uzochukwu, Gbolahan Salami and Odion Ighalo were among the players who attended the house warming party. He joins Videoton forward, Ezekiel Henty who also dedicated his new house earlier in December. A source close to the player told Completesportsnigeria. com that the property cost the footballer a whopping N380million. Igbonu has scored six goals in 19 league games so far this season for FC UFA who are sixth in the Russian League table.
