Ahead of Thursday’s  Confederations Cup clash between African Champions, Nigeria, and the South American Champions, Uruguay, in Salvador, both sides appear poised to approach the game as cautious as they can be.

Uruguay and Nigeria have both recorded contrasting results as Uruguay recorded a loss to Spain in their first game while Nigeria walloped Tahiti 6-1.

With these results, Uruguay must win the Thursday game ahead of the third opponent if it wants to proceed to the next level of the competition while Nigeria needs to assert itself with a win in the second game before meeting Spain. Spain has been tipped by pundits to beat Nigeria, so a win at Arena Fonte Nova on Thursday will put the winners in a very strong position to progress to the last four.

The game between Nigeria and Uruguay has been tagged the final before the final by the Uruguay camp as Uruguay coach Oscar Tabarez described it as their ‘Key Match’, while captain Diego Lugano said the game was their ‘own final’ which in every sense means beating Nigeria will show the coast is clear for Uruguay.

A draw between both continental champions leaves the situation hanging but Uruguay will be in a better position as it will face Oceania champions, Tahiti, while Nigeria faces Spain in the final group clashes.

Nigeria can, however, can put up a display of ‘A’ performance, if Spain can be beaten or carve out a draw against them.

Nigeria is probably Uruguay’s biggest headache as this can be deduced from Uruguay’s striker Diego Forlan who hinted that the Uruguay camp has already put behind them the defeat by Spain and they are making serious preparations ahead of their clash against Nigeria.