Nigeria were recently involved in a friendly match with Italy at Craven cottage and they came out of the match with a credible 2-2 draw against the 2006 world champions.

Nigeria manager Stephen Keshi said after the match that his players deserved this result because they have to go to extreme lengths in order to perform well. Nigeria had only come to London 48 hours before the match, which meant that his players were suffering from serious jetlag issues. Some of them had not slept properly, but despite such difficulties, they were able to get the draw.

Nigeria are recognised as one of the best African teams at the moment after not only managing to win the African cup of nations in January, but also qualifying for the World Cup 2014 in style. They became the first team from Africa to qualify for the World Cup and they are expected to be one of the dark horses. Keshi has revealed that his team could not train ahead of the match because they were deprived of sleep to such an extent.

“After 48 hours, playing a World Cup qualifying match and flying right away here, they did good. Without sleeping, and we didn’t get to do any training before this game. I’m happy. This is the fifth or sixth time I’m taking the same team to play my game. Most of them are going to be there (in Brazil), if there’s no injuries. I pray there’s no injuries. But I still need some (new) players in the team, to make the team more solid," said Keshi.

This was a very disappointing result for Italy since it meant that they have now drawn the last four matches. This has increased the pressure on manager Cesare Prandelli. Nigeria, meanwhile, have suffered just one defeat since June.