Nigerian Super Eagles will play England at Wembley on Saturday, June 2. The Three Lions will play another African nation, Tunisia, in their first match at the World Cup on June 18 and the Nigeria match is seen as ideal preparation.
The England manager, Gareth Southgate, said: “We’re going into a World Cup where we will play African and Central American opposition, so we get that with the games against Nigeria and Costa Rica, but it’s not just about the games we’ve got in the group but hopefully beyond that as well.
“We want to expose the team to different styles and different experiences.”
Before games against Nigeria and Costa Rica, England will play Netherlands and Italy in March. The Costa Rica fixture will be played at Leeds United’s ground on June 7. “All of the feedback from the team before Euro 2016 was really positive, the players enjoyed it and it was definitely well received by the public,” added Southgate.
“It’s nice when we have an opportunity to take the team on the road.”
Nigeria has been seeded with Argentina, Iceland and Croatia for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. This will be the fifth time Nigeria will be pitched against Argentina in the group stage of the World Cup.
Except for France 1998, Nigeria have faced the two-time world champions in all the World Cup campaigns the Eagles qualified for.
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