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Nigeria have fast players and are talented – Portugal’s Fernando Santos
By Olu Dare
Portugal coach Fernando Santos have waxed lyrical about the qualities Nigeria senior national team boasts of.
The Super Eagles – who will not be in Qatar – square up against the Europeans on Thursday morning with few days to the commencement of the global football showpiece.
Ahead of the fixture billed for Lisbon, the Portuguese handler is delighted with the choice of the warm up encounter, while talking about what makes the three-time African champions thick.
“Nigeria has something to do with Ghana. They have very fast players, they exploit speed. They are very talented,” coach Santos told Portugal football website.
“I don’t know how Nigeria will be on the field, but they usually play in 4-4-2 and Ghana often in 4-3-3. Jose Peseiro also showed a lot of interest in playing this game in Portugal. It was a good choice.”
The tactician also gave a hint that Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo could be missing out of the fixture due to fitness worries.
“At the moment he, Cristiano Ronaldo, has symptoms of gastroenteritis, something that brings the players down a lot He’s not going to train because of that, he’s in his room to rest and for tomorrow he won’t be ready for sure.
“Pepe is recovering, he worked hard with his team, with strong competitive rhythms. Our teams work very hard and we have another 10 days to continue improving. Tomorrow he will certainly have some game time to improve his rhythms competitive.
“My team usually plays with four and I paid extra attention to those who play with four in defense. Others could have come but from what I saw in the much more demanding games, like Champions, derbies, derbis, it ended for falling back on him and is proof of confidence.”
