World Cup 2014: Nigeria set sights on France after ruffling Argentina

Peter Odemwingie says Nigeria are confident after reaching the last 16, and now they want to go even further

Ahmed Musa, No7, celebrates with his Nigeria team-mates after his second equaliser against Argentina. Photograph: Li Gia/Rex

Vincent Enyeama was wearing a huge smile and waving his hands about when he departed the Estádio Beira-Rio, shouting across the room as he bounded towards the team bus waiting outside. “Messi?” the Nigeria goalkeeper boomed, laughing, “They should have given man of the match to Musa.” His enthusiasm was understandable. Nigeria had been beaten 3-2 by Argentina but Ahmed Musa had scored two fine goals and they had qualified for the next round. “I hope we play the same way against France,” the manager, Stephen Keshi, said. “I feel good.”

Others should too. If Keshi described Leo Messi as being “from Jupiter”, the rest of this Argentina side are terrestrial. Javier Mascherano said that they were “getting closer to what we want to be,” but their other goalscorer, Marcos Rojo, admitted: “There’s a lot to think about. In defence we have to improve because they put two past us and that puts pressure on those up front.” And the Nigeria forward Peter Odemwingie said that his team, like Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iran before them, had shown the way for opponents: Argentina are a team who can be attacked.
Odemwingie, the Stoke City striker, admitted that Argentina logically play to their strengths – to Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín, Sergio Agüero and Ángel di María – but insisted that if they do not remedy some of their defensive difficulties they could court trouble.

“They definitely can be opened up,” he said. “No disrespect but there is not much pace in the middle [of the defence] and the second half showed that. If you don’t let them just play slowly from the back they are in trouble. The key to success against this team is to force them to kick it long. We did that. We intercepted their long balls and went fast on the counterattacks. We had seven, eight, nine shots that we could have scored from today.”

Odemwingie continued: “Defence is not the strongest part of their game. The quality they have is all up front: the movement of Higuaín, Agüero, Di María, who surprised us with long-range shots.”
Asked if Argentina could find themselves in trouble if they do not improve defensively, Odemwingie said: “Yes That’s their weak link. They have to take the game into the other half of the pitch. They know they have to do that because if they play in their own half they are going to be in trouble.
“So they are doing the right thing, looking at their strengths. [But] we got two [goals] and we could have got more. We went into this game knowing we could score goals. Even Iran had success against Argentina by doing that. We saw that when Argentina played Bosnia, there were chances for the opposition.”
This was not just about Argentina’s vulnerability; it was about Nigeria’s virtues too and there were big smiles at full time. “It was important to show the strength of our team under a lot of pressure: game by game we are improving,” Odemwingie said. “We looked very mobile and we did well on the counterattacks. We’ve got the pace. We have to do a bit better because we played mostly in our own half but it was a good performance dealing with the quality players they have. And our keeper was outstanding again. We were good in every position, starting from the defence.”
As for the man that Enyeama insisted should have beaten Messi to the MVP award, Odemwingie said: “Musa looked confident, light. We know his asset is his speed so we try to find him where we can just push the ball for him to run. He did that against Argentina and had two cool finishes. I hope he takes that confidence into the next game.”

There was satisfaction with the way the game had gone despite defeat and, as Odemwingie tells it, there was even time to enjoy the occasion. Defeat for Iran guaranteed qualification, the score coming in from Salvador delivering reassurance in Porto Alegre.
“We didn’t know what was happening in the Iran game. I asked someone when we came off at half-time and I was told it was 1-0 for Bosnia. It was a bit reassuring that they were losing and towards the end one of our players signalled that it was 3-1 so we congratulated ourselves that four points would take us through,” said Odemwingie, who watched the final 10 minutes unfold from the bench, having been replaced by Uche Nwofor.
“It was a worry until that score was announced. But it was so exciting that most of our players’ eyes were just on the pitch, waiting on the equaliser here,” he said. “You can see that in the reaction on the bench. When things happen some dive on the floor, some hit their heads on the dugout. You worry for your team. When you’re sitting down [there] you become a fan.”