Super Eagles of Nigeria
CAR shock lackluster Super Eagles in Lagos, win 1:0
Nigeria’s Super Eagles lost the chance to go three points clear at the top of Group C in the 2022 World Cup Qualification round for Africa, when they slumped to a shock 0:1 defeat to the Central African Republic.
The match played, Thursday evening, inside the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, is the Eagles first loss at the pitch since returning to the Lagos arena.
The mostly-foreign-based Gernot Rohr’s squad was lackluster for the entire 90 minutes of the match as they struggled to impress the 5,000 fans who thronged the stadium on the back last month’s impressive showing against Liberia which they won 2:0.
The is the team’s first loss in the qualifiers having won at home against Liberia and away to Cape Verde.
After 90 minutes of struggling, the hosts were stunned by a late goal, as the visiting team snatched all three points from the encounter.
Confederation of African Football (CAF) had permitted the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to admit only 5,000 fans, for the Super Eagles’ World Cup qualifier against the Central African Republic on Thursday.
With the loss, the Super Eagles players and coaches will now fly into Douala in Cameroun, Saturday morning, for the reverse fixture that will kick off at 2pm Cameroon time on Sunday, and fly back to Abuja immediately after the game.
The Super Eagles will be looking for all three points in that reverse fixture to stand a chance of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Earlier on Wednesday, the country’s U20 women’s team, the Falconets, had mauled their counterparts from the same Central African Republic 11-0 on aggregate to advance to the next stage of the U20 World Cup qualifying tournament.
Nigeria U20 women’s team stopped CAR 4-0 today at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos to advance 11-0 on aggregate after they won their first leg in Cameroon 7-0.
They will meet the overall winners between Egypt and DR Congo in the next round of the qualifiers for the World Cup next year Costa Rica.
CAR plays its home matches in Cameroun as mandated by CAF.
