England beat Nigeria at World Cup warm-up match
London, June 3 (IANS) England has defeated Nigeria 2-1 in a World Cup warm-up match at Wembley.
Chelsea center back Gary Cahill opened the scoring for the Three Lions by heading home Kieran Trippier’s corner after just six minutes of the game on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported.
England captain Harry Kane drilled a low shot past Nigerian goalie Francis Uzoho from the edge of the area just before the break after collecting a pass from Raheem Sterling.
Dele Alli was greeted by jeers from the Nigerian fans from the start. The Spurs man, born in England, could have been eligible to represent the Super Eagles with his father being Nigerian.
Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi made it 2-1 only two minutes by firing home the rebound after Odion Ighalo hit the post.
England boss Gareth Southgate told ITV: “I think we played really well, with the ball especially. Far more good situations than in recent games. We were deservedly two goals up in the first half. The period leading up to their goal, they changed their system and we took some time to adjust. But after that we dealt with it well. It was a decent exercise for us to adjust to that. ”
England will host costa Rica in Leeds on June 7 before flying to Russia, where they open the World Cup against Group G rivals tunisia on June 18.
Nigeria, in Group D, will play their first game on June 16.