BY ANDREW EKEJIUBA
Nigeria’s Super Eagles, will on Tuesday, November 16, battle Blue Sharks of Cape Verde at the Teslim Balogun Stadium Lagos, for the playoff ticket for the 2022 FIFA World Cup holding in Qatar.
With one game to go in the second round of the qualifiers, Eagles must work hard to remain top of Group C in order to clinch the ticket.
At the weekend, Cape Verde came from a goal down to beat Central African Republic 2-1 to stay in second position with 10 points, while Eagles remained top of Group C with 12 points.
Both Liberia and Central African Republic, on three and four points respectively, are out in the race to advance to the final round of the qualifiers.
The Super Eagles from analysis need just a point to qualify when they host Cape Verde in the final Group C cracker.
The team took a step closer to reaching the playoff of the 2022 FIFA World Cup following a 2-0 resounding win against Liberia in Tangier, Morocco on Saturday.
In the encounter, Nigeria’s manager, Gernot Rohr, decided to play a three-man central back of Chidozie Awaziem, William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun.
Moses Simon and Jamilu Collins were deployed as wing-back.
The trio of Wilfred Ndidi, Joe Aribo and Alex Iwobi operated at the heart of the pitch, while Kelechi Iheanacho and Victor Osimhen spearheaded the attack. Maduka Okoye however retained his position between the sticks.
Nigeria settled into the game quickly as Osimhen got the first chance of the game but was adjudged to be offside.
Osimhen later scored from the spot to put Nigeria ahead after Iheanacho was fouled inside the box by Lone Star’s goalkeeper, Boison Wynney De Souza.
Liberia almost levelled in the 26th minute from a dangerous set piece but Okoye dealt with the threat.
Collins thought he had doubled the lead for the Eagles but the linesman flag was raised for an offside in the 29th minute.
Osimhen missed some clear cut chances before the break that could have seen Nigeria head to the break with more than one goal.
Super Eagles continued domination in the second half searching for another goal as Rohr brought in Chidera Ejuke who replaced Alex Iwobi.
With the game almost ending, Super Eagles got their second goal through Captain, Ahmed Musa, who came from the bench and scored from the spot.
It is expected that the Super Eagles will put up such a spirited effort come November 16 against Cape Verde to seal a playoff ticket ahead of the Mundial in Qatar.
Meanwhile, Rohr has revealed exactly why returnee striker Odion Ighalo, did not participate in Super Eagles 2-0 win against Liberia at the weekend.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Rohr claimed that Ighalo was not recalled to the team because of the scoring problems and confirmed that the former Manchester United star did not participate in the match due to his late arrival in camp.
“No, the reason why we asked Ighalo to come back is that we have such a young team, they are very young 22, 23, 21,” Rohr said.
“Our strikers are all very young, Ejuke is coming now, Chukwueze is coming back from injury.
“Everybody is young, we need somebody to help them with his experience in the striker position and he’s a good goal scorer we know it.
“We are happy to have him back, he only arrived on Thursday that’s why he couldn’t participate in this match.
“I hope that in the next match next Tuesday he will be able to help us much more,” the coach said.
