Tijjani Babangida: Can Nigeria defeat Argentina when Messi is involved?

Former Super Eagles striker Tijjani Babangida says Argentina may have an upper hand over Nigeria at the World Cup if star player, Lionel Messi, is fielded.

According to Tijjani, the onus is on Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr to fashion out a way to defeat Argentina at the World Cup, and not just during friendly matches.

Argentina and Nigeria have met in five World Cups; 1994, 1998, 2002, 2010 and 2014, with the South American country winning all.

“We’ve always been playing friendlies with Argentina and we usually win. Even the one we played recently in Russia, we won by 4-1,” Tijjani told TheCable.

“But if you see the World Cup matches we played against them, we lost all the matches.

“Messi was not involved in the last game we won against them and he is their joker.

“Even Rohr said it that Argentina have seen us play now without Messi but how will we do it when he is involved?

“Rohr has been given an assignment on how to achieve this same feat when Messi is in the Argentina squad in Russia.

“The question is will Nigeria be able to break the jinx at the World Cup by defeating Argentina with their joker- Lionel Messi as the captain in Russia?”