Africa vice champions, Nigeria, will take on Ghana’s Black Stars and Les Aigles of Mali in two top-grade friendly matches in the Moroccan city of Marrakech later this month.
The Super Eagles take a group photo before their AFCON 2023 semi-final game against South Africa. Photo: AFP
Nigeria and Mali, both teams incidentally nicknamed ‘Eagles’, last clashed in a friendly match in Rouen, France in the summer of 2016. The encounter ended scoreless. The Malian Eagles had, three years earlier, lost 1-4 to eventual winners Super Eagles in Durban in the semi-finals of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.
Midfield enforcer, Wilfred Ndidi, who missed the continental house party in Cote d’Ivoire returns from injury, while Bayer Leverkusen of Germany’s Nathan Tella and Turkey-based Fisayo Dele-Bashiru have fresh opportunities to stake claims to permanent shirts.Goalkeepers: Stanley Nwabali ; Francis Uzoho ; Ojo Olorunleke
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, and the Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, have agreed to partner on the conduct of drug test for footballers in the country as part of efforts to curb the menace of substance abuse in Nigeria.