World Cup Favourites: Portugal coach writes off Nigeria

Portugal head coach, Fernando Santos has written off Nigeria’s chances of advancing to the knockout stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The Portuguese coach also mentioned Morocco as the other African side that will not progress from its respective group.

Nigeria were the first African side to qualify for the Mundial ahead of Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia and Senegal.

Morocco play in Group B alongside Portugal, Spain and Iran while Nigeria face Croatia, Iceland and Argentina in Group D.

“Morocco and Nigeria will not have it easy in their respective groups as they face top footballing sides and others,” he said.

Surprisingly, he has not tipped his own country who are the reigning European champions and boast the current FIFA Men’s Player winner in the person of Cristiano Ronaldo to win the trophy.

“For me, the favourites are Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina and France,” the 63-year-old told Blog Ora Bolas.

“I say this due to the enormous strength in depth they have and the extraordinary quality of their teams, in addition to their experience on the big stages and success.

“We know that we’re not the favourites (Portugal) and we accept the favouritism of the other teams, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have ambition and the clear goal of going into each match to win.

“I think no African Country would scale through the group stage. I don’t have the intention of thinking we’re better than everyone else, but we believe greatly in our quality and know we’ll be difficult to beat.”