The head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle says the team can still qualify for the 2026 world cup despite their poor position in their group as they head into the final two games of the qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Third place Nigeria are currently six points behind group leaders South Africa, and trail second place Benin Republic by three points, but South Africa will likely have a three points and three goals deduction for fielding an ineligible player in their 2-0 win over Lesotho, following a charge by FIFA.
That said Chelle is confident that even though the task looks hard on paper, his team will do their part in ensuring that they make it to the 2026 World Cup in Canada, USA and Mexico.
” We are not losing hope because we can still be at the world cup next year. Two games is very much in football with six points to play for in October”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com .
” So far we haven’t lost in our last four games in the qualifiers and that is how we hope to end it all and see what happens elsewhere”.
Sources at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) say they are expecting the coach to make available the provisional list of players for the games in October against Lesotho and Benin Republic respectively next week.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
