Algeria Replace Ivory Coast For Super Eagles Friendly

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has finally found a replacement for Ivory Coast who decided to cancel their friendly with Super Eagles due to internal problems.

The Super Eagles will now face Algeria on Friday, 9^th October at the Jacques Lemans Arena, before facing Tunisia four days later at the same venue.

NFF announced soon after Ivory Coast withdrawal on Friday that Algeria had accepted to tango with the three-time Africa champions in Austria.

“We have permission from our government to travel from Algeria to Austria and our country has reopened international flights. We also would like to confirm that FIFA match agent Me Jairo Pachon is authorised to carry on all the required work and planning in Austria in order to stage this event,” said Mohamed Saad, General Secretary of the Algeria Football Federation.

Algeria is expected to bring their strongest possible team for the international friendly as part of their preparations for the upcoming back-to-back 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Zimbabwe in November.

The Fennecs beat the Super Eagles 2-1 in the semi-final of last year’s African Cup of Nations in Egypt and went on to lift the African title.

Nigeria have not played any match since defeating Lesotho 4-2 at Maseru’s Setsoto Stadium on November 17, 2019 due the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The clash between the Super Eagles and Fennecs in Austria will be forth in three years. Both teams were in the same qualifying pool for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with the Eagles trouncing the Fennecs 3-1 in Uyo before a 1-1 draw in Constantine.