Sitting through Iran 0 Nigeria 0 in the Super Eagles' opening Group F encounter was frustrating and in truth pretty desperate at times.
Stephen Keshi's men rapidly ran out of ideas faced with a determined and well-organised Iranian defence and barely threatened the opposing goal until Peter Odemwingie injected a bit of impetus as a 69th-minute substitute.
Still they toiled and struggled to make any serious impression in the final third and the full-time whistle came as a major relief to all concerned, not least the neutral observer.
Keshi admitted afterwards "the boys were nervous and unsettled" and it would be no great surprise to see a much-improved performance this time as underdogs against a Bosnia-Herzegovina team who head into the clash at a shade of odds-on to claim all three points.
While a more coherent effort from Nigeria could well be on the cards, we shouldn't expect a great deal considering the Africa Cup of Nations champions came into these World Cup finals having failed to win any of their four warm-up games, including a 2-2 draw with Scotland and a 0-0 stalemate against Greece.
Bosnia, on the other hand, rounded off their pre-tournament friendlies with wins over Ivory Coast and Mexico and there were plenty of positives to be gleaned from their 2-1 defeat at the hands of a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina on Sunday.
Despite conceding an own goal inside three minutes against many people's idea of the likely winners, Safet Susic's World Cup debutants didn't crumble and remained right in the tie until a moment of magic from Messi all but sealed their fate in the second half.
An 84th-minute consolation from sub Vedad Ibisevic will have given the Bosnians something of a confidence boost and it's hard to see them failing to find the target in their second game.
Verdict: Nigeria 0 Bosnia-Herzegovina 3 (MB)
Opta facts:
Nigeria haven't won any of their last nine World Cup games (D3 L6), their last victory was a 1-0 over Bulgaria in 1998.
Vedad Ibisevic netted Bosnia-Herzegovina's first ever World Cup goal against Argentina. He had already found the net eight times in the European World Cup qualifiers.
Bosnia-Herzegovina attempted more shots at goal (11) than their opponents Argentina (9) in the opening match
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