Poland’s coach, Adam Nawalka is confident his side are in great shape to face the Super Eagles, who will be without Mikel Obi, in a friendly in Wroclaw on Friday night.
“We keep calm, activities are prepared on the basis of the staff’s and competitors’ experience,” Nawalka said during his post-match press conference on Thursday.
Nigeria captain and key player Mikel will miss the friendly due to paperwork issues in China, but Nawailka insists his plans remain the same.
“We know Mikel is a good player and very important for Nigeria, but his absence will have no impact on our preparations for the match,” Nawailka added.
“Even without Mikel, the Nigerians are a strong test for Poland.”
The coach, who played at the 1978 World Cup for Poland, relived his experience and how it relates to his current role.
He said: “I was a very young player and the emotions were great. The World Cup is the biggest event, but I kept my head cool.
“I fought to be in the first team. It was a rivalry with great players, it was possible to perform in almost every game and it was a great experience that pays off in the training career.”
Nawailka insists that his preparations have gone according to plan for the Nigeria clash, despite a few knocks.
“I assess the preparation very positively. They were planned so that we could combine our tactical activities on the pitch and the theoretical work. We analyzed the previous two meetings, there was a lot of work to do. These were team meetings as well as individual meetings. The players came up professionally, everything was well prepared and keep it up.”
Friday night’s friendly kicks off at 8.45pm Nigerian time, the same as Polish time.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
