The starting lineup for the senior national team of Nigeria for their 2025 AFCON qualifiers game against Benin Republic has been made known by head coach of the team Austine Eguavoen, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Super Eagles head into the game searching for at least a point against their host, who are under pressure not to lose in order to keep their chances of making it to the tournament next year in Morocco.
In view of that the coach has adopted a more conservative approach by going with three at the back handing a debut to Auxerre defender Gabriel Osho who starts on the right as part of a back three with the duo of Calvin Bassey and captain William Troost-Ekong.
Eguavoen picked the duo of Ola Aina and Bruno Onyemaechi to play as the right and left wing back respectively leaving the duo of Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi as the midfield two.
In attack he pulled a major surprise by picking Kelechi Iheanacho to start on the right after his impressive performance in training yesterday like we exclusively reported. Also Victor Boniface drops to the bench for Victor Osimhen to lead the line.
Ademola Lookman completes the starting XI with a role as the left sided forward.
Starting XI
Stanley Nwabali
Osho + Ekong + Bassey
Aina + Ndidi + Iwobi + Onyemaechi
Iheanacho + Osimhen + Lookman
