3 weeks ago
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Captain William Troost-Ekong has expressed optimism arsenic the Super Eagles hole for the CAF Play-Off Tournament for the 2026 FIFA World Cup successful Morocco adjacent month.
The squad is buoyed by their 4-0 triumph implicit Benin Republic that secured their spot successful the playoffs. Ekong acknowledged the situation up and reiterated the team’s determination to prehend the opportunity, contempt missing retired connected automatic qualification.
“We are rather blessed to person this opportunity. It is simply a agelong journey, but it is simply a travel nonetheless. We would person preferred to unafraid an automatic ticket, but that did not happen, and we volition marque the astir of what we have. For us, we volition stay strong, resilient, and acceptable to face each situation connected our way arsenic we question qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“It was a fantastic squad effort connected Tuesday evening. Everyone contributed; each subordinate played their part. If the different lucifer had gone our way, we would person secured the automatic ticket. But that’s life. You instrumentality what you get and tally with it, making the champion of the situation.”
Nigeria achieved their champion effect of the run during a memorable nighttime successful the Akwa Ibom State capital, with Victor Osimhen scoring a hat-trick and midfielder Frank Onyeka, who came connected arsenic a substitute, adding different extremity successful the 90th infinitesimal to propel the three-time African champions into the CAF Play-Off Tournament.
Despite their beardown performance, the Super Eagles could person claimed the automatic summons from Group C. Unfortunately, Rwanda’s Amavubi faltered astatine a important moment, succumbing to South Africa’s Bafana Bafana successful Nelspruit. This mirrored the events of November 2005 erstwhile each the Amavubi needed was to clasp Angola to a gully connected the last matchday successful Kigali. Instead, they conceded a precocious goal, rendering Nigeria’s five-goal rout of Zimbabwe successful Abuja meaningless and sending Angola to their archetypal FIFA World Cup finals.
In the CAF Play-offs, Nigeria volition look Gabon’s Palancas Negras successful the ‘first semi-final’ connected Thursday, 13th November, portion Cameroon volition instrumentality connected the Democratic Republic of Congo successful the ‘second semi-final’ connected Friday, 14th November. The 2 winners volition clash successful the ‘final’ connected Sunday, 16th November, with the victor advancing to the Intercontinental play-offs successful Mexico’s Guadalajara and Monterrey successful March.
The International Play-off Tournament volition spot six teams vie for 2 places: Africa’s winner, Bolivia, New Caledonia, the victor of the Asian play-off betwixt Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, and 2 of Jamaica, Costa Rica, and Panama.
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