NFF plans emergency friendly against Austria in response to Super Eagles poor form and string of loses

NIGERIAN Football Federation (NFF) officials have begin negotiating with the Austrian football association about the possibility of playing one last friendly before the World Cup following the recent spate of bad results indicating that more fine-tuning is needed.

With Nigeria due to start her World Cup campaign on June 16 against Croatia, things are not looking well at the moment as the Super Eagles have failed to win any of their last four friendly games. They lost 0-2 to Serbia, drew 101 with the Democratic Republic of Congo, lost 1-2 to England and yesterday suffered another 0-1 loss to the Czech republic in Austria.

Originally, the Czech republic game was supposed to be the last before the Eagles moved to their camp in Russia but given the fact that the team is not yet firing on all cylinders as expected, the NFF has decided one more match is necessary. Head coach Gernot Rohr had originally been opposed to the idea of another friendly to close to the World Cup be he now concedes that something drastic needs to be done.

If the deal with Austria is sealed, the match is likely to be played behind closed doors and would be played over the coming week. It will give Mr Rohr the opportunity to try out several new options, which according to officials close to the team may include using Torino's Joel Obi at leftback and starting either Simeon Nwankwo of Kelechi Iheanacho as his targetman.

Austria will engage Brazil in a friendly game on June 10, so fitting the Eagles into their schedule will be a challenge but if both FA are unable to reach an agreement, there are plans to engaged a select side for the Eagles. Coach Rohr is said to be considering dropping top striker Odion Ighalo for the Austria game as he has failed to show his true abilities in the last friendly games.

Jarolim Karel, the Czech Republic coach has revealed that his side exploited some weakness noticed in the Super Eagles team their game against England . However, he conceded that Nigeria was lucky not to have drawn the game on the strength of the second half display by the Super Eagles.

Mr Karel said: "Nigeria are suspect from high balls so we used that to our advantage after we noticed it against England before our game against them. As a team we adjusted brilliantly to the loss against Australia and it helped us.

"We were lucky to have claimed the win because Nigeria did very well in the second half but it also showed how we have organised ourselves after the disappointment of losing heavily against Australia few days ago.”