Nigeria to play South Africa in friendly on March 29

The Niheria Super Eagles will play a friendly March against Bafana Bafana in Mbombela later this month as both countries re-enact their growing rivalry
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF announced on Friday that the Super Eagles will play a friendly game against South Africa on Sunday, March 29, three days after hosting Bolivia in Uyo.
The match comes a little over four months after a 2-2 draw in Uyo between the two teams meant Nigeria failed to qualify for the 30th Africa Cup of Nations finals in Equatorial Guinea.
The highly anticipated encounter will take place at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit where the Super Eagles played their first two matches enroute to winning the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations title.
“The upcoming game will definitely be another grudge encounter and both countries’ coaches would like to put the record straight. Whenever the two nations clash, the entire country comes to a standstill, more so with a huge Nigerian community in South Africa, this will be another explosive clash. This is a match soccer fans must not miss,” said Dr Danny Jordaan on the Safa website.
While South Africa will be looking to pick up from their group stage elimination at this year’s Afcon, Nigeria are yet to appoint a substantive coach since the end of the World Cup in 2014.
Both teams are preparing for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying series.
The Super Eagles would be without their star player John Obi Mikel who has recently undergone surgery at Chelsea and will be out till April.
However, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama is expected to return and would earn inch closer to his century of caps for the national team if he plays in both matches.