NIGERIA AND ALGERIA are the only two African sides left in the competition, but can they handle the pressure of playing against highly fancied soccer greats? The majority must be counting the two sides with beautiful suffixes to go packing, but I am refusing to jump on the bandwagon.

First off in the mid-afternoon Brazilian heat will be Nigeria. The French must be praying for rain even though the bulk of their players are "Africans”. But unlike France who faced no major challenge in their group matches, Nigeria did test their mettle against Messi and his Argentine side.

That Stephen Keshi’s African champions matched Argentina for the better part of the game in the 3-2 defeat and they would have taken positives from such a lively performance.

They were not even expected to progress but with Vincent Enyeama proving his worth in goal, the Super Eagles have played put their critics to the sword. Barring distractions over pay bonus, they can again to do it by giving France their first serious test.

France will be expecting an easy win against Nigeria, but this is a fixture that can put their rearguard to real test. All Nigeria needs is for Obi Mikel to play like he did against Argentina to suffocate the French midfielder. I believe in this Nigerian side to pull it off here. 3-2 against France.

Four hours after France-Nigeria, favourites Germany will be facing a team that has defied the odds. Not even the gods must have expected Algeria to play so openly, but here they are. Although Russia, Belgium and South Korea are not Germany, Algeria has already proved their worth.

A whitewashing 5-1 defeat to the Die Mannschaft is on the cards but they will walk off with their heads high because of the calibre of their opponents.