Preview: Colombia vs Nigeria (Rio Olympics)

Group B’s top two teams Nigeria (6 points) and Colombia (2 points) face-off today, August 10 at the Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, as the group games of Rio Olympics men’s football tournament rounds off. While Nigeria will be looking to secure nine points and a 100% record in the competition, the game is a must-win for Colombia if they want to advance to the next round. However, Colombia should not expect any favours from their opponents, with captain and Chelsea midfielder Mikel John Obi maintaining that his team will not lose focus on their target to win the gold medal. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Nigeria vs Japan Etebo Oghenekaro celebrates one of his four goals against Japan Although, Nigeria’s coach Samson Siasia has disclosed that he intends to rest some of his starters in the game, the 48-year-old still looks likely to feature a strong squad. “I had to take this decision to rest some players because we have qualified for the quarter finals as group leaders, and secondly I need to rest some of the starters because in the next phase there is a possibility of going into extra time. “For now the boys have done well and I need to make the other players justify why I selected them for this tournament. This is not a tea party so everyone must stand up to be counted, and the only way they can be counted is if they play well against Colombia. Resting some starters does not mean we are under –rating the opposition,” he said. The Colombians on the other hand, have had a decent performance thus far at the competition, drawing both of their matches against Sweden and Japan by the score of 2-2. They relied on the greatness of striker Teofilo Gutierrez, who featured in this tournament instead of the Copa America last month. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter colombia-team-captain-teofilo-gutierrez This game promises to be a cracker and NAIJ.com will bring you live coverage of the encounter. Kick-off time 11pm (Nigerian time).