The Super Eagles of Nigeria held a training session on Wednesday evening, marking a full shift in focus towards their 2026 FIFA World Cup Africa playoff semi-final match against the Panthers of Gabon on Thursday.
The pay dispute that reared its head and knocked off Tuesday’s training session has been put to bed, and the players now look forward to putting Thursday’s potentially explosive encounter out of the reach of the Gabonese and earning a place in Sunday’s Final.
On Wednesday evening, the three-time African champions trained at the Institut Royal de Formation Des Cadres in Salé, outside Rabat.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau, expressed confidence that the team will deliver on Thursday.
“We believe in the players and their ability to make Nigeria proud, not only on Thursday, but throughout these playoffs. We have a team capable of earning a World Cup ticket.”
Former Nigeria international and coach, now NFF Technical Director, Augustine Eguavoen, said: “These boys that I know, that I have worked with, want to go to the FIFA World Cup. Every professional footballer aspires to play at the World Cup and enhance their market value.
“The timing of the strike was wrong. They might have had their reasons, but the timing was not the best. Having said that, I have faith in them to rise up to the occasion and do the business on Thursday, and afterwards, on Sunday.”
Thursday’s high-stakes encounter at the Complexe Sportif Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan in Rabat, starting at 5 pm (Morocco is on the same time zone as Nigeria presently) will be the 10th confrontation between the senior men’s national teams of Nigeria and Gabon, with Nigeria having won five of the previous nine matches, and three drawn.
Gabon won only one – a 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Libreville that ended 2-1.
On Thursday, forwards Victor Osimhen (Nigeria) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be the cynosure, as two of the deadliest strikers in world football (Aubameyang netted all four of Gabon’s goals in an away game against Gambia in the qualifying series, while Osimhen scored two away to Rwanda and three at home to the Bénin Republic) lead their teams’ pursuit of a FIFA World Cup ticket.
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