Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick has confirmed that England and four international friendlies have been lined up for the Super Eagles in preparation for next year FIFA World Cup.
Speaking at the final of the NFF/Zenith Bank Under-15 Football Tournament at the Agege Stadium in Lagos on Tuesday, Pinnick confirmed that Eagles were going to take on the Three Lions of England at the Wembley Stadium on June 2, 2018.
He also revealed that another international friendly match has been fixed for May 27 for Eagles but did not confirm the country.
The NFF chief further hinted what would have been a fifth friendly fixed on June 6 was cancelled because of its closeness to June 16, the date Nigeria will play her opening group game against Croatia at the Kaliningrad Stadium in Kaliningrad, Russia.
“The fear of injuries also necessitated the cancellation of the June 6 date. The game will ordinarily have come up two days after the final 23-player squad lists would have been submitted. We cannot afford to take that risk,” stressed Pinnick .
The 2018 Russia-hosted FIFA World Cup will take place in 11 Russian cities from June 14 to July 15 next year.
Nigeria is drawn in Group D and will open her campaign against Croatia.
This will be followed by Iceland on June 22 at the Volgograd Arena in Volgograd while a fifth World Cup group game against Argentina will hold at the Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg on June 26.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
