The Super Eagles of Nigeria defeated Rwanda by a lone goal at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium on Saturday to keep their hopes of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup alive.
New Wolves boy Tolu Arokodare turned up with a scrappy goal in the second half to help Nigeria and save Eric Chelle’s blushes.
Now, Nigeria have 10 points from seven games, six points behind group leaders South Africa, who have 16. And with three games left, it is a tricky situation.
Interestingly, Nigeria and South Africa play next Tuesday in the World Cup Qualifiers. And a win for the Super Eagles would blow the group open. A win for the Super Eagles will mean that they will be separated from South Africa by just three points.
Then, the other glory-seeking teams on the group will cancel each other out. That should see Nigeria climb to second position at least.
South Africa’s Goof Might Come In Handy
During the last set of World Cup Qualifiers, it was revealed that South Africa had used an illegitimate player － Teboho Mokoena－ for the qualifiers against Lesotho.
The player had accumulated two yellow cards from the first two games and wasn’t supposed to play, but he featured in their game against Lesotho which they won.
Usually, when these issues arise, the erring team is deducted three points and three goals, as experienced by Nigeria during the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers.
However, since the South Africa update, neither CAF nor FIFA have sanctioned the Bafana Bafana. Still, there is the belief that South Africa will get punished by the end Qualifiers.
With this in mind, the Super Eagles just need to defeat South Africa and win their last two games of the series convincingly to put themselves in a good position to qualify.
But the Super Eagles have often struggled to deliver and a win away from home, in a filled South African stadium will be tough.
