As the next round of qualification matches for the 2026 Federation of International Football Associations, FIFA World Cup begins in March, 2025, Nigerians are in quandary over the ability of the Super Eagles to pick the sole ticket of Group C as they lie precariously on the fifth spot, surprisingly behind Rwanda, South Africa, Benin Republic and Lesotho in that order.
To emerge top of the group, the Super Eagles, who are presently without a substantive coach, would need to win the remaining six matches left in the series to amass 18 points in addition to the three they already have to finish with 21 points.
Before 1994, Nigeria’s senior national team, either as the Red Devils, Green Eagles or Super Eagles had always lost in their quest to qualify for the greatest single sports event in the world, football’s World Cup with the nearest being in 1977 when they needed a home win against Tunisia to qualify but no thanks to an own goal through Godwin Odiye’s back header.
From 1960 when the country gained her flag independence from Britain, the national team first participated in the CAF World Cup qualifiers for the 1962 edition in Chile with only six teams participating, Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and Tunisia.
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However, only four of them competed for a partial slot as Egypt, then known as the United Arab Republic and Sudan withdrew.
Morocco was paired with Tunisia while Nigeria and Ghana battled each other in a two- legged affair.
Morocco and Tunisia won their respective home games 2-1 but in the playoffs in Palermo, Italy, both teams settled for a 1-1 draw after extra time but rather than a penalty shootout, it was decided by a toss of coin and Morocco triumphed.
Ghana defeated Nigeria 4-1 in the first leg in Accra and the return leg in Lagos ended 2-2 and so Ghana went ahead to play Morocco but lost out to the North Africans.
Africa couldn’t get a slot as Morocco lost the inter-confederation playoffs to Spain.
For the 1966 qualifiers, Nigeria was among the 15 African countries that entered for the competition.
However, they didn’t kick a ball as all of them withdrew in protest after FIFA declined to allocate a direct qualifying place for an African team.
Like in the 1962 qualifiers when they had to go through a playoff route with a team from UEFA, they were asked to play a team in Asia-Oceania.
In 1969 during the 1970 World Cup qualifiers, after dumping Ghana, Morocco became the barrier as they picked the lone ticket and qualified ahead of Nigeria as CAF didn’t go through the playoffs route again.
For the 1974 edition, Ghana stopped Nigeria again after 0-2 in Lagos and 0-0 in Accra.
It was an own goal by Godwin Odiye at the National Stadium in Lagos that denied Nigeria the ticket to the 1978 World Cup.
By 1982, FIFA had awarded Africa two slots but Nigeria didn’t still qualify, the same with 1986 and 1990.
The crop of Super Eagles who won the AFCON in Tunisia in 1994 also made history by qualifying the country for her first World Cup held in the United States that same year without much stress.
Since that first appearance, the Super Eagles have missed only two editions, 2006 edition in Germany which they lost to Angola through head to head rule and the last one in Qatar which they also lost, again on home soil to perennial rivals Ghana on aggregate after 0-0 in Accra and 1-1 in Abuja.
Since 1994, this is the first time that the Super Eagles have boxed themselves into a precarious corner, making Nigerians ask if they could pick the chestnut out of the fire they have put themselves through by their lackadaisical approach to matches.
Unlike the fabled monkey seeking the help of the cat with its paws to pick the chestnut out of the fiery fire, the Super Eagles would have no outside help but need their determination and dexterity to do the unthinkable, win all six remaining matches, without which they would just kiss the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico goodbye.
The task before whoever is appointed to lead the team in this journey is an onerous one. Whether it is Austin Eguavoen, on an interim or substantive basis, or a foreign coach, the chances are very slim if the performances of the current set of Super Eagles are anything to go by.
In the last 12 months, the team has not won six straight matches, so how are they going to do it now with so much anxiety?
From January to November this year, they have played 18 games, three being friendly matches, and they won only nine. One of the wins was a quarter-finals penalty shootout against South Africa at the AFCON in Abidjan and the other was a 2025 AFCON qualifier awarded to them against Libya.
So you can safely say they won only seven games in regulation time, which gives them a 39 percent chance of repeating same in the six remaining World Cup matches starting 17th of March, 2025 with the Kigali tie against the same Rwanda that snatched a rare victory against them at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo last month.
After the match in Kigali, they will play two consecutive home matches against Zimbabwe on 24th of March and Rwanda on 25th of September.
In the same September, they will travel to Johannesburg to meet the Bafana Bafana whose coach, Hugo Broos is almost swearing that it will be over his dead body that Nigeria will qualify ahead of South Africa.
Their last home game on 13th of October, will be against Gernot Rohr’s Cheetahs who inflicted the first loss on them in the qualifiers in Abidjan.
If the Super Eagles lose any of the five matches before the last game away to Lesotho, the NFF should just save the country the scarce foreign exchange in inviting Europe-based players by sending the leading club in the NPFL or the CHAN Eagles to play the game which will be a mere formality.
If however, the Super Eagles are able to pull the chestnut out of the proverbial fire and qualify, it will be a step higher than the eighth wonder of the world that former vice president of FIFA Jack Warner described the readiness of the Lagos National Stadium for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 1999 under few months.
