Nigeria is starting their Unity Cup title defence with a friendly against Zimbabwe at The Valley in London on Tuesday, the defending champion of the competition will play in the final against either Jamaica or India.
Eric Chelles team is in shape even though some key players are not there, and on the other hand Zimbabwe has won their last two games and they think they can beat Nigeria.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria’s last big game was the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, where they lost to Morocco in the semi-final, and then defeated Egypt to come third.
After that Nigeria played two games in March, they beat Iran 2-1, Drew 2-2 with Jordan. Unarguably, Nigeria has not been so solid defensively, playing games where they score and the opponent scores too. This has happened in the last seven of their eight friendly games. So it is unlikely that the game on Tuesday will be a game with not many goals.
This year Nigeria has won four of their six games, Scoring 10 goals, and it seems this will be a problem for Zimbabwe because they have been working on their defence since they lost in the Nations Cup.
Zimbabwe did not do well in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, they did not win any of their three games, and have been doing better lately beating Botswana 3-0, Zambia Under-23s 1-0 in March.
History had it that the Super Eagles of Nigeria and Zimbabwe have played each other before. They met twice during the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and both games ended 1-1, as a matter of fact, their last three games have all ended in a draw. Nigeria has beaten Zimbabwe four times in eight games. They have also drawn three times and Lost once a long time ago in 1981.
Kaitano Tembos team will feel good about their chances because they have been doing well against teams, of course they also have a team that wants to do well in a big game, like this.
Nigeria Opens Unity Cup with Friendly Against Zimbabwe
