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Nigeria return to World Cup qualifying this week, still licking the wounds that came from failing at the final hurdle in their last attempt, a hurt exacerbated by doing so at home and to their biggest rivals.
As the race to the 2026 World Cup begins, the Super Eagles’ primary objective is to erase the memory of that painful stumble. They begin that journey on Thursday with the opening game against Lesotho, then travel to Rwanda to face Zimbabwe.
Stand-in captain Kenneth Omeruo minced no words about what the outcome needs to be from these two games, and how they need to approach the gruelling 10-match campaign.
“Most of us in the team still remember how painful it was not to be part of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar,” he told ESPN. “The memory lingers but then, that is gone. This is a fresh opportunity and we all want to be at the next one.”
He added: “This is a serious matter for us. We are working hard to do what we have to do to get to the next World Cup. We’ve played Lesotho and Zimbabwe in the past.
“The important thing is to stick to our game plan and take the game very seriously because we have to win both games.”
Pulling from the lessons of the previous campaign, Omeruo said the team would play the games as they come without thinking too far ahead: “There is always the temptation to over-think how to process the campaign, but it is a long one and we have opted to think and plan for only the match ahead of us.
“On Thursday, we will play Lesotho. We remember them from our 2021 AFCON qualifiers. After the final whistle on Thursday, we can then start thinking about the next opponents.”
Also in the group are South Africa, who have recently proven to be a thorn in the flesh for the Eagles; Benin, coached by former Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr; and Rwanda.
Under CAF’s new qualifying format, group winners qualify automatically for the World Cup, while runners-up face a more convoluted route which is not guaranteed to result in a World Cup ticket.
Coach Jose Peseiro will be without the services of hitman Victor Osimhen, who leads the scoring in the Nations Cup qualifiers, along with AC Milan‘s Samuel Chukwueze. Both are out injured, but Peseiro still has a formidable, in-form strike force to select from, led by Bayer Leverkusen hotshot Victor Boniface (11 goals, 6 assists), Nottingham Forest‘s Taiwo Awoniyi (4 goals, 2 assists), Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho (6 goals, 2 assists) and Terem Moffi of OGC Nice (3 goals, 2 assists).
Also out is midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, and left back Bruno Onyemaechi, but Alex Iwobi says it’s next man up, despite Nigeria being somewhat light in midfield, especially with Joe Aribo not getting minutes at club level.
To add to that squad, Peseiro will have the newly minted Super Eagle Nathan Tella, the Stevenage-born winger, who has decided to turn out for Nigeria. The 24-year-old former Arsenal youth star is keen to impress and show what he can do.
“I always want to push myself and challenge myself to play with the best and be among the best,” Tella said after training for the first time with the squad. “I got the opportunity to do that at club level and now I can do that at international team level, so it is a big opportunity for me.
“Fans should expect someone who is direct, makes a lot of runs in behind, likes to get into one v one situations, to dribble and to assist and score to help my team.”
As optimistic as all these may be for Nigeria however, especially with the quality of their attack, their biggest issue lies at the back, where the goalkeepers have been anything but confidence-inspiring.
Francis Uzoho was once celebrated as a rising star, and was in goal at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He has since found himself making high profile errors that have left fans tearing their hair out. The goalkeeper has played just once for his club so far this season, and the match rust was obvious in the last few Nigeria games.
Maduka Okoye, who has had equally limited playing time for Udinese, and suffered his own calamity at the Nations Cup in Cameroon, was called up but withdrew from the squad. His place was handed to local boy Amas Obasogie of Bendel Insurance. With the other goalie being the similarly inexperience Olorunleke Ojo of Enyimba, it would be a major surprise if Uzoho does not get the starting nod again.
That has the potential to be either very good, if he uses the criticism as self motivation, or very calamitous if he lets the nerves get the better of him.
NFF president Ibrahim Musa Gusau has made it clear that the World Cup ticket is non-negotiable. It all starts with a win over Lesotho on Thursday.
