While the Nigerians need a big win to press their claims for a place in the last 16, Tahiti are looking to collect an unlikely three points and sneak in through the back door themselves.
The game
Tahiti-Nigeria, Cairo, Thursday 1 October, 18:45 (local time)
The stakes
Though logic dictates that both sides are staring elimination in the face, the Nigerians can at least harbour realistic hopes of scoring a big win and sneaking into the Round of 16 as one of the best third-placed teams. To do that, however, they will need to improve the wayward finishing that afflicted them in their opening two games, in which they failed to score. For their part the Tahitians are still in with a mathematical chance, but simply making life difficult for their opponents would represent an achievement in itself.
The stat
24 – The number of years since Nigeria recorded their first win over an Oceania side in the competition. By way of coincidence, current coach Samson Siasia was a member of the side that defeated Australia 3-2 on that occasion at USSR 1985.
The words
“We are well aware of the differences between the two teams on an individual level, but my players have been gaining in confidence despite the results and they know we can still qualify if we beat Nigeria. Of course it’s going be very tough to do that, but anything can happen in football.” Tahiti coach Lionel Charbonnier
“We have absolutely no margin for error now. We need to start doing all the things we’ve failed to do so far, and that’s winning and scoring goals. And even then that might not be enough. So what we need to do first and foremost is concentrate on getting the win.” Nigeria coach Samson Siasia
Story courtesy of FIFA.com