Nigeria will have a lot to worry about in the group stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup if the outcome of a prediction simulation were to come true.
FIFA released the World Cup Pots on Thursday using the October world Ranking system and it put the Super Eagles in Pot 4.
Tunisia, Egypt and Senegal are in Pot 3 while, Morocco – the lowest ranked African team – join Nigeria in Pot 4.
Based on 32 simulations and other mathematical procedures, two probables emerged the likeliest possibilities for the Super Eagles in the draw on 1 December.
Pots announced for #WorldCup Final Drawhttps://t.co/Wr17mUox90 pic.twitter.com/1BTSixQ05Z
— #WCQ (@FIFAWorldCup) November 16, 2017
The system provided by ultra zone for the world cup draw simulations featured Nigeria prominently in Groups C and E.
Other sets considered are the frequency of teams that Nigeria appeared in the overall simulation.
As was the case in the determination of groups, some countries emerged prominently, among them Brazil and Argentina from Pot 1.
In a simple classification from Pot 1, Brazil appeared most in the first sample drawn followed by Mexico in Pot 2.
For the teams in Pot 3, Denmark and Iceland appeared the same number of times in the 32 simulations.
The first prediction:
GROUP C: Brazil, Mexico, Denmark/Iceland (Denmark and Iceland shared same frequency)
The other prediction had Argentina appear more times, but only second to Brazil from Pot 1.
In the other likely pairing, Group E had Argentina from Pot 1.
Colombia appeared more times from Pot 2 but, the principle of the drawing will not have two teams from the same Confederation – except UEFA teams – in the same group.
Thus, because Argentina and Colombia are both from CONMEBOL Croatia will take that place in Pot 2.
The Pot 3 team will still be either one of Denmark or Iceland.
GROUP E: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland/Denmark
Nigeria will be making their sixth appearance at the world cup but, have only progressed beyond the group stage on three occasions – 1994, 1998 and 2014.
