Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez, Carlos Puyol and goalkeeper Victor Valdez have been named by coach Johan Cruyff in the Catalonia side that will play a friendly match against Nigeria's Super Eagles in Catalan city on Wednesday (today).
Cryuff also listed seven other Barcelona players in the team and another seven players from La Liga side Espanyol.
The other Barca players for the match are Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Martin Montoya, Sergio Roberto, Christian Tello and Marc Bartra while Joan Verdi, Joan Capdevilla, Sergio Garcia, Kiko Casillas, Raul Rodriguez, Victor Sanchez, and Sergio Tejera were selected from the Espanyol side.
The Eagles are preparing for the 2013 Africa Nations Cup coming up in South Africa between January 19 and February 10 and Eagles coach Stephen Keshi said that the friendly would test Nigeria's readiness to compete strongly at the tournament because of the quality of the Wednesday opponents. Nigeria have been drawn in group C where the Eagles will meet African champions Zambia, Burkina Faso and former champions Ethiopia in Nelspruit and Rustenburg.
He said, "These are big names no doubt but our players know that names don't play football these days, we will just go out there and give our best against them."
The match, which takes place on Espanyol home ground in the Catalan city, will start at 7pmNigerian time instead of the 9pm earlier advertised.
Ahead of the friendly match, Real Betis of Spain midfielder, Nosa Igiebor and Villarreal striker, Ikechukwu Uche, on Tuesday joined the team in Spain while Celtic's Rabiu Ibrahim also joined the team for a training session on Tuesday.
The Eagles left their Browns Resort and Sports Centre camp in Faro 5am Nigerian time on Tuesday and arrived Spain via Lisbon before making the 1 hour 30minutes flight to Barcelona.
Officials of the Nigeria High Commission in Spain led by Head of Chancery, Safiu Olaniyan, Deputy Consul-General, Nze Nnadi, Curtis Aghedo, who is President Nigerian Union in Barcelona, Kingsley Lawal, President Nigerian community in Valles and one of its executives, Gbenga Adegoke, received the team on arrival in Barcelona.
In an address, which was delivered by Olaniyan, Nigeria Ambassador to Spain, Bianca Ojukwu, urged the players to go all out and do the nation proud in the friendly match and to do well at the Nations Cup in South Africa. In his response, Keshi said the Eagles would make the nation proud at the tournament, highlighting the support of the Nigeria Football Federation in the preparation for the competition.
