The Super Eagles and coaching crew touched down their Essentuki base late on Monday night just an hour before midnight. They arrived at about 11pm Nigerian time. Entry time was influenced by slight postponements in their departure from Austria, where they had been preparing following their World Cup warm-up matches. The Gernot Rohr-led team are expected to carry out their first training session following their landing on Tuesday.
They are the last team in Group D to touch base in Russia for the competition, with Argentina and Iceland flying in on Saturday while their first World Cup opponents, Croatia arrived Russia on Monday afternoon. Nigeria will go up against Croatia in their opening Group D fixture on Saturday at the Kaliningrad Stadium.