Nigeria faces Uruguay on Thursday in the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup. The match begins at 6 p.m. ET. Tune into ESPN3 or watch the live stream here.
Nigeria can earn a spot in the Confederations Cup semifinals next week with a win against Uruguay, according to ESPN. The African champions should have a tougher matchup than they did on Monday when they defeated Tahiti, 6-1.
Uruguay, meanwhile, hopes to rebound from a 2-1 loss to Spain on Sunday. Spain held Uruguay to 29 percent possession time, something La Celeste will need to change to have a shot at defeating Nigeria. Uruguay manager Oscar Tabarez knows his squad needs to win to keep alive in the Cup chase.
"The next match, against Nigeria, is the most important of all, if we win, then I think we have a chance of being in the semifinals," he told reporters.
Uruguay front man Diego Forlan echoed his boss.
"We knew before coming to Brazil that our most important game was against Nigeria and nothing has changed because we lost to Spain," Forlan told BBC reporters.
Despite the lopsided victory over Tahiti, Nigeria manager Stephen Keshi wasn't impressed by his squad's play on Monday.
"The performance I expected from the players was not what they gave. They did better than that against Mexico and Namibia and I expect them to even do more when they play Uruguay on Thursday," he told reporters.
Nigeria will be without Ogenyi Onazi, Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emenike and Kalu Uche.
Thursday is the first time the two teams meet in a senior international.
