The Super Eagles’ Road to the World Cup has never been smooth. Is history repeating itself or will 2026 be different?
For Nigerian football fans, World Cup qualification always seems like a rollercoaster ride and the ongoing campaign for the 2026 World Cup is not different. Mathematically, the Super Eagles can still make it—but the window is narrowing fast. Grabbing maximum points in the remaining games and perhaps a slice of fortune, such as external rulings shaking up group standings, are now essential. With Rwanda and South Africa up next, the mission has become do-or-die fixtures. Nigeria has been bedevilled by a history of Near Misses and Painful Lessons in World Cup qualifiers. Between the 1960s and 1980s, Nigeria consistently failed to qualify for the World Cup, usually losing out to African rivals like Cameroon, Tunisia, and Algeria. It wasn’t until 1994 that the Super Eagles finally broke through to the global stage but history hasn’t always been kind. For the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Nigeria shockingly failed to qualify, finishing behind Angola. That miss ended a run of three straight appe...
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