Russia coach has warned Super Eagles will not be soft touch Friday even though they will be without top stars Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman.
This will be the first-ever clash between Russia and Nigeria at full international level.
“It doesn’t change our preparation at all. Without Osimhen and Lookman, there will be other equally good footballers,” Russia coach Valeri Karpin told Komsomolskaya Pravda
“Now there are many media outlets, bloggers, internet broadcasts… They write: “Nigeria is bringing a second team” only because two leaders didn’t come.”
The Russian coach was quick to point out that his own squad is also without several key names.
“Then we can also say that we are bringing a second team. We don’t have Golovin, we don’t have Zakharyan. Golovin, Zakharyan, Barinov, Diveev were not in the match with Zambia,” he said..
“These are our main players, our stars. Safonov was not there. But no one is talking about this.”
Karpin revealed that he is looking forward to facing top Super Eagles players like Sevilla forward Kelechi Iheanacho and Bayer Leverkusen striker Victor Boniface, but admitted he’d have preferred Osimhen and Lookman to test his squad.
“Of course. I repeat, I would like to have both Osimhen and Lookman to test our team against the best players,” he said.
“But their absence certainly does not make Nigeria fundamentally weaker.”
