Who will sing: 'Don't cry for me Argentina'

Kunle Solaja

May 30

Don't cry for me Argentina was a popular sonorous song in the 1970s depicting the political turmoil in Argentina in the 1950s especially that of Eva Peron, the wife of the Argentine dictator, Juan Peron.

Will Argentina cry after their Round of 16 clash with Nigeria's Flying Eagles this Wednesday? On paper as the most successful country in the competition and also as hosts, the odds weigh heavily in their favour.

But according to information from the Nigeria Football Federation media department, the Flying Eagles are not intimidated.

Nigeria and Argentina have met at the competition only once in 2005 in a high profile final match featuring Lionel Messi for the Argentines and Mikel Obi for Nigeria.

The NFF insists that the Flying Eagles have the capability of turning the table in the match holding at San Juan 10pm Nigerian time on Wednesday.

Argentina had a 100 percent run in the competition, winning all their three group matches and scoring 10 goals.

"We shall not be intimidated by the physicality of the opponents and the capacity crowd expected at the venue", Nigerian coach, Ladan Bosso has remarked.

Bosso said on Tuesday, as his boys prepared for their official training session at match time (6pm Argentine time and 10pm Nigeria) that his Africa Cup of Nations bronze medallists will be ready to give as much as they receive in Wednesday's encounter.

"This is the World Cup and it is wrong to under-rate any team. We won two of our three matches and had the same number of points in our group as Brazil and Italy. We are no pushovers in this campaign.

"It is going to be an interesting game. We want the quarter-final ticket and the Argentines also want the quarter-final ticket. We will go in there and dig our feet into the ground."

ALL THE QUARTER-FINAL MATCHES