Nigeria’s captain, Mikel Obi, has slammed the Croatian national team, accusing them of unprofessionalism after reports emerged that they plan to rest star players against Iceland.
With Nigeria’s qualification hanging in the balance, they would need to get a result against Argentina and hope that Croatia stop Iceland from winning to have any hope of qualification.
Speaking to Goal, Mikel said he does not understand Croatia’s decision to rest players.
“I don’t think it’s the best thing to do,” he told Goal. “This is a massive tournament – you can’t rest people and give others a chance of qualification.
“They should be professional and play their best team. This is such a big stage that you can’t rest players just to help other teams to qualify.”
Nigeria face off against Argentina in the final group game of the tournament on Tuesday and will need to bring their A-game to play a wounder Argentina side that will definitely throw everything they’ve got at Nigeria after they were only able to manage one point against both Iceland and Croatia.
Mikel, who is no stranger to facing Argentina having faced them numerous times both in age group competitions and the National team, he said; “I think they have played well. It’s going to be a tough and difficult game for us.”