Coach Gernot Rohr has warned the Super Eagles to underrate any team and prepare harder for the 2018 World Cup tournament in Russia.
He gave the warning on Friday at the ceremony for the World Cup draw in the Kremlin in Moscow.
At the event, Nigeria were drawn in Group D with two-time former World Cup winners Argentina, Croatia, and Iceland.
READ ALSO: Nigeria Drawn In Group D With Argentina For 2018 World Cup
The draw comes 17 days after Rohr’s men stunned Argentina by recovering from two goals down to win 4-2 in Krasnodar.
The German manager, however, asked the Nigerian team not to expect a re-occurrence of what happened on November 14, stressing that not just the Argentine but other opponents in the group were ranked better by FIFA.
“We have three teams supposed to be better than us because they are higher on the FIFA ranking, so what we have to do is to prepare well,” he said.
“You know that Argentina is a very good team but know that it will be more difficult now than in the friendly. So, we cannot surprise them like we did the last time (because) Lionel Messi will be here and Iceland is also a very good team, very strong physically – they have the best fans of the Europe.”
The 64-year-old also recommended that the Super Eagles play a series of friendly matches with teams who play similar game patterns with their rivals in the World Cup group stage.
He said: “Our first game will be against Croatia. It will be interesting to have a good friendly (match), for example, against Serbia because they play similar football.
“Croatia came to the World Cup; in the last two games against Greece, they won 4-1 and they played a draw in the second game.”
See World Cup draws below;
Group A – Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Uruguay.
Group B – Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Iran.
Group C – France, Australia, Peru, and Denmark.
Group D – Nigeria, Argentina, Croatia, and Iceland.
Group E – Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
Group F – Germany, Mexico, Sweden, and South Korea.
Group G – Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England.
Group H – Poland, Senegal, Colombia, and Japan.
