African time: who came to Moscow to play against the Russian national team

The 2024/25 club football season is over, which means it's time for the national teams. In conditions of the still-current suspension from international competitions under the auspices of FIFA and UEFA, the Russian national team holds only friendly matches. The next one will be held on Friday, June 6. Valery Karpin's team will face the Nigerian national team at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. Read more about the opponent and the composition of our national team in the Izvestia article.

More than football

The geography is expanding. The Russian national team has never met with the Nigerian national team before, if we take the country's recent history after the collapse of the USSR. All the more interesting.

Since Russia's withdrawal from the international arena, the Nigerian national team will become the third truly serious opponent of the Russians to come to us. In October 2023, Cameroon became the first such opponent (Russia won 1-0 with a goal from Fedor Chalov at the Lev Yashin Dynamo Stadium). The second was the Serbian national team, which received four unanswered goals at the same stadium in March 2024 (from brothers Anton and Alexei Miranchuk, Maxim Osipenko and Ivan Sergeev).

In the current FIFA ranking, the Nigerian national team ranks 43rd. The Nigerians are sixth in strength among the African national teams (the Russian national team currently ranks 35th in the global ranking).

Nigeria is currently qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. However, the results leave much to be desired — fourth place after six matches. Although everything is very tight there, and a lot can change. Nigeria has seven points, while Benin and Rwanda, who are above them, have eight each. The South African national team leads in Group C with 13 points. It is noteworthy that at the moment, Nigeria is playing mostly in a draw in its qualifying group (in four of the six matches).

In 2025, before the meeting with the Russian national team, the Nigerians managed to play four matches: two qualifying for the World Cup and two more friendly matches. And so far we have never lost this year: two wins (2-0 over Rwanda and 2-1 over Ghana) with two draws (1-1 with Zimbabwe and 2-2 with Jamaica).

The main star of the Nigerian national team is striker of the Turkish Galatasaray Victor Osimhen. He is also the most expensive player of the national team (€70 million, according to the Transfermarkt portal). Unfortunately, he will not come to Moscow. As well as the second most expensive player of the national team, Italian Atalanta striker Ademola Lukman (€ 60 million).

Goalkeeper's castling: Safonov is ready to play for the national team again

PSG goalkeeper joined the national team, and Stanislav Agkatsev left it.

But even without them, the Nigerians may well impose a decent fight on the Russian national team. Most of the national team's players play in the clubs of the leading European leagues. There will also be striker Olakunle Olusegun, well-known to Russian fans, who became the national champion in Krasnodar last season of the Russian Premier League.

"We are very happy to be in Moscow, this is not my first trip to Russia," Nigerian captain William Trost said at a press conference.‑Ekong. — Yesterday we visited the Red Square, got to know your city a little. This is not a tourist trip for us. We came here on business. We are waiting for our game. Honestly, I don't know much about the leaders of the Russian national team. We've watched a lot of your team's videos. We see that you have a strong team, and we are taking this very seriously. We know that the Russian national team does not miss several matches in a row. We will try to change this. Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of football. Football unites people, and we will have the opportunity to show this to humanity. A mix of different people from different continents is great. It's a real friendly match for us, even though we want to win. Nations unite, get to know each other, communicate. We respect each other. Tomorrow's match is more than football

The Nigerian national team is coached by 47-year-old Malian Eric Schell. In the past, he defended a number of French clubs from lower leagues (where he spent his entire playing career): Martigues, Valenciennes, Lens, Istra and Nyora, as well as the national team of Mali (five matches between 2004 and 2006). After finishing his playing career, Schell coached Atletico Marseille, Martigues, Boulogne, as well as Algerian Oran and the national team of Mali.

Power football

Initially, the coaching staff of the national team, led by Valery Karpin, called 31 players for the match with Nigeria. However, there have been some changes since the publication of the first version of the list.

Zenit goalkeeper Evgeny Latyshon was replaced by Anton Mitryushkin from Lokomotiv for medical reasons. Dmitry Vorobyov, the Railwaymen's striker, and Stanislav Agkatsev, the Krasnodar goalkeeper, also left the national team due to injury.

— Nigeria is one of the strongest rivals in recent years. It's great that we can test our strength," said Matvey Safonov, goalkeeper of the Russian national team.

— I can say this, as the coach who led the USSR against Nigeria, that this is a national team that is associated with the German team in Europe, only in an African version, — said the award-winning specialist Anatoly Byshovets. — They play power football, and the winner is the one who wins in martial arts, there is an English saying. I think this experience will be useful for our players as well. The work done by Karpin is thankless in terms of waiting for official matches. In many ways, it should be based on perspective, because there is every reason for this. The choice of such an opponent is very different from what it was before.

The match will be served by an Azerbaijani team of referees led by Aliyar Aghayev. He will be assisted by his compatriots, assistant referees Zeynal Zeynalov and Akif Amirali. Russian Evgeny Kukulyak became the reserve referee.