The Super Eagles on Sunday played out a 1-1 draw against five time World cup champions Brazil at the kallang Stadium in Singapore.
It was a high profile international friendly no doubt but one which Brazil judging from world ranking and team worth was expected to have won.
The worth of the Brazilian squad that took on the Eagles on Sunday is valued at 1.14 billion Euros while the worth of the William Troost-Ekong captained Super Eagles in that clash is valued at 219 million Euros a whooping difference of 750million euros. For Super Eagles this certainly is a good outing judging from their underdog position and a huge disappointment for Brazil judging from their vintage position.
It was a case of investing so much and getting so little and investing so little and yet standing up to be counted.
Prior to the draw against Eagles, coach Tite tutored Samba Boys also settled for a draw against Nations Cup finalists Senegal.
But the interesting thing about the Nigerian match was that the Eagles thanks to Joe Aribo shot into the lead in the first half leaving Brazil to fight from behind to equalise a complete opposite of what transpired in the match against Senegal where the Selecao through Roberto Fermino shot into the lead in the 9th minute and held on till the dying minute of the first half when Taranga Lions equalised via penalty.
Two huge lessons to be drawn from the match is that FIFA ranking and financial worth of a team is not a guarantee that victory is assured and that the saying that no more minors in football is as real as reality.
On a good day, current form, raw determination to succeed plus never-say die spirit may be the deciding factor.