Nigeria vs Bosnia and Herzegovina Prediction - Will Bosnia Grab Their First World Cup Win Against Nigeria?

Next Saturday, Nigeria will come face to face with Bosnia and Herzegovina at Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba on a match that might help decide who will walk through in the competition alongside with Argentina, who are firm favourites to win the group.

Bosnia’s debut on a World Cup tournament was certainly not the one the team and their supporters were expecting. Bosnia conceded a somewhat weird own goal early in the match and that fact probably conditioned the team’s strategy during the entire game.

The team’s manager, the historical former Yugoslavian footballer Safet Susic, operated some changes in his team for the match against Argentina. The changes implemented didn’t produce the expected results and the team that usually plays in a classic 4-1-3-2 tactical scheme failed to adapt to Susic’s improvised 4-5-1, with Dzeko wandering alone up in the front.

On the second-half, after Fernando Gago took the helm of the Argentinean midfield, Bosnia lost the control of the midfield line and ended up conceding the second goal on a brilliant individual effort from Messi on the 65’ minute. The unimpressive attacking performance from the Bosnian players forced Susic to bring Ibisevic to the match right after the Albiceleste’s second goal. The Stuttgart striker managed to make a stand and he scored his team’s lonely goal, with approximately five minutes until the end of the match.

As for Nigeria, the match against Bosnia will pose another good opportunity for them to show their real value after a fairly bland performance for their World Cup opening clash against Iran.

Nigeria looked a very disorganized team against Iran and, despite the undeniable quality of most of their players, the African team never looked very capable of disrupting a far more organized side such as Iran.

Stephen Keshi presented his usual 4-3-3 style against Iran with a fairly dynamic trio composed of Emenike, Moses and Musa up in the front, but the team failed to score a single goal. If one considers what happened over Nigeria’s last match, it is likely that Stephen Keshi will implement some changes in the team for the important clash against Bosnia.

Because of their impressive World Cup qualification campaign, Bosnia and Herzegovina have to be considered favourites for next Saturday’s match and such favouritism could only be pinched if Nigeria drastically changed their approach to the match.

Nigeria

Stats: W-4 L-0 D-1

Recent Form - DWWWW

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - LWWWW

Possible Line-ups

Nigeria (4-3-3) - Enyeama, Ambrose, Omeruo, Oboabona, Oshaniwa, Onazi, Mikel, Azeez, Moses, Odemwingie, Emenike

Bosnia and Herzegovina (4-1-3-2) - Begovic - Mujdza - Bicakcic - Spahic - Kolasinac - Besic - Pjanic - Ljulic - Misimovic - Dzeko - Ibisevic

Prediction: Nigeria 0 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1