Captain of the senior national team of Nigeria William Troost-Ekong says the Super Eagles will approach the dead rubber AFCON qualifiers game against Rwanda with all seriousness, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Nigeria are already through to the 2025 AFCON following the 1-1 draw away against Benin Republic on Thursday, making tomorrow’s game against Rwanda a tie of no significance to the Austine Eguavoen led team.

However the result of the game could jeopardize the chances of other teams in the group namely Benin Republic, Libya and even Rwanda. All three teams are battling for the other ticket from the group on the final matchday tomorrow.

Libya will need to beat Benin Republic by at least four goals without reply, with Benin handled by former coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr needing a point and a win by Nigeria to book a spot.

Rwanda will also be in the mix if they get either a win or draw against Nigeria pending on results in the other game, and Ekong says they won’t be approaching tomorrow’s game with the intention of doing a favor to any team.

” We (Super Eagles) won’t do favors to any team with our game against Rwanda because it’s very unprofessional to even think of doing any team a favor. I am not sure any other team will do us such favors if we need one. So we will approach tomorrow’s game with all of the seriousness it deserves”, he said at the pre match presser.

The captain of the senior national team of Nigeria William Troost-Ekong says his rise to the top with the team which culminated in winning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award at the last AFCON was down to always wanting to prove a point, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Ekong made his debut for the senior national team of Nigeria in 2015 against Chad and has since then remained a mainstay in the team. It was however not plain sailing for the 31 year old as he had to endure some setbacks at some stages.

Responding to a question about the criticism he suffered in the hands of the former coach of the team Sunday Oliseh who doubted his suitability for African football, Ekong said it fueled him to work harder in order to prove the former captain wrong.

“They always fueled me to do more. Whenever I have difficult moments, I tend to have Good moments after because it’s something that you know also keeps me thinking at night, makes me evaluate myself.

” But I think now my age, I stopped trying to prove myself to anyone.  Sunday Oliseh is a legend. Someone I respect very much. He’s done so much for Nigerian football. I think the time when I spoke about that I was just 24 year old and it was when we just qualified for the World Cup after I was ruled out”,  he said at the pre match presser ahead of their last AFCON qualifiers game against Rwanda tomorrow.

” You have your ups and downs and maybe at the time that was the right thing, but I didn’t want to accept it and that’s all part of it, you know. So, I’m very proud of where I am now. It’s been a lot of hard work and hardwork doesn’t stop”.

He went further to say something similar happened with Jose Peseiro just before the AFCON and it pushed him to the level, which earned him the MVP award at the tournament in Cote d’Ivoire.

”  I mean something similar happened just before the last AFCON between Jose Peseiro and myself.
We had some differences and in the end we made amends and yeah that performance came out on the back of that. So happy that our coach now doesn’t have to motivate me like that anymore but it’s um, yeah something that, you know, everybody wants to do better and Football is no straight line”, he concluded.

Former coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr says he was expecting CAF to place a ban on Libya from hosting games at their home ground after the poor treatment that the Super Eagles of Nigeria suffered upon arrival for their AFCON qualifiers game last month, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

CAF awarded three points and three goals to Nigeria for the botched AFCON qualifiers game last month after the team were left stranded at the airport without food, water or internet for 16 hours upon arrival for the reverse tie of their 1-0 win in Uyo.

In addition they were fined $50,000, but Rohr said he was expecting a stadium ban that will see them complete the rest of the qualifiers at a neutral ground. He made this known ahead of tomorrow’s AFCON qualifiers which his team need a draw at the home of Libya to seal a spot in the tournament.

“We are already focused on this last match which will obviously be very hot. We thought perhaps that after what happened with Nigeria, they (the Libyans) would have had a suspension from the field to play like us on neutral ground. It was not the decision of the CAF. I only hope that we will have a refereeing as correct as today”

The senior national team of Nigeria had their penultimate full training session ahead of tomorrow’s game against Rwanda in the final round of games in the AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Already through to the tournament following the 1-1 draw away to Benin Republic and Libya’a shock 1-0 win away to Rwanda during the last round of games, the team stepped up preparations for the dead rubber game with a session that lasted for almost two hours.

Before the session, it was announced on the official communication channel of the team that Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman will skip the session, due to a knock picked up in Thursday’s game against Benin Republic.

After the warm up drills and some other fitness routines, the goalkeepers of the team who were going through a separate drill with goalkeeper’s coach Abideen Baruwa were made to join the rest of the outfield players in a practice game.

We noticed five players namely Alex Iwobi, William Troost-Ekong, Wilfred Ndidi, Bruno Onyemaechi and Victor Osimhen didn’t take part in the seven a-side practice game. Which was won by the team in all green.

It appears the players were given a rest by the technical crew and later today we will find out if it could lead to some of them not taking part in tomorrow’s game scheduled for 5pm.

The test match ended 3-2 in favor of the team in all green without bibs with Sadiq Umar tapping come a well worked move with Simon.

Below is how they lined up against each other.

Winning Team: Osho, Boniface, Onyedika, Onyeka, Simon, Sadiq, Obasogie

Losing Team – Kelechi, Bruno, Collins, Dele-Bashiru, Osayi-Samuel, Samuel Chukwueze, Alhassan, Okoye

Players of the senior national team of Libya have sent a passionate plea to the Super Eagles players not to rest on their oars against Rwanda in the final round of games in the AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Libya’s quest to qualify for the tournament in Morocco received a huge boost after their shock 1-0 win away to Rwanda during the last round of games. A result that effectively seals Nigeria’s spot at the tournament rendering tomorrow’s game against Rwanda a mere formality.

However Libya need the Super Eagles to avoid defeat if they are to scale through even though they will need to beat Benin Republic with at least four unreplied goals. Benin need just a draw from the game to be through but it also depends on Rwanda not beating the Super Eagles in Uyo.

During a live broadcast ahead of tomorrow’s game, players of the senior national team of Libya openly pleaded for Nigeria to avoid defeat against Rwanda, as they are confident of getting the desired result against Benin in Tripoli.

Super Eagles were awarded three points and three goals by CAF for the botched away game against Libya, who left the team unattended to at the airport without food, water or internet for 16 hours upon arrival for the reverse tie of their 1-0 win in Uyo.

The senior national team of Nigeria had their penultimate full training session ahead of tomorrow’s game against Rwanda in the final round of games in the AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Already through to the tournament following the 1-1 draw away to Benin Republic and Libya’a shock 1-0 win away to Rwanda during the last round of games, the team stepped up preparations for the dead rubber game with a session that lasted for almost two hours.

Before the session, it was announced on the official communication channel of the team that Atalanta forward Ademola Lookman will skip the session, due to a knock picked up in Thursday’s game against Benin Republic.

After the warm up drills and some other fitness routines, the goalkeepers of the team who were going through a separate drill with goalkeeper’s coach Abideen Baruwa were made to join the rest of the outfield players in a practice game.

We noticed five players namely Alex Iwobi, William Troost-Ekong, Wilfred Ndidi, Bruno Onyemaechi and Victor Osimhen didn’t take part in the seven a-side practice game. Which was won by the team in all green.

It appears the players were given a rest by the technical crew and later today we will find out if it could lead to some of them not taking part in tomorrow’s game scheduled for 5pm.

Winning Team: Osho, Boniface, Onyedika, Onyeka, Simon, Sadiq, Obasogie

Losing Team – Kelechi, Bruno, Collins, Dele-Bashiru, Osayi-Samuel, Samuel Chukwueze, Alhassan, Okoye

The head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen will make a couple of changes to his starting lineup for their last game in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Nigeria sealed a spot at the tournament after Libya’s shock 1-0 win over Rwanda during the last round of games, they later picked up a 1-1 draw against Benin Republic to further cement their top spot in the group making tomorrow’s game against Rwanda in Uyo a dead rubber game.

That said Eguavoen is already without two regulars in Ola Aina who flew back to England in the request of his team Nottingham Forest and Stanley Nwabali who is bereaved following the death of his father.

Further changes is expected in the starting XI with Bright Osayi-Samuel replacing Aina at right back and Maduka Okoye getting a chance to be in goal again for the first time since 2022 as Nwabali’s replacement.

In attack we exclusively gathered that top striker Victor Osimhen will be rested with Victor Boniface taking his spot as the arrow head of the attack , Sadiq Umar will also get some good time which could see Osimhen sit out the game entirely.

Head coach of the senior national team of Benin Republic Gernot Rohr says the Super Eagles of Nigeria were lucky to snatched a 1-1 draw against his team in the AFCON Qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Nigeria stole a point from the game nine minutes from full time when Victor Osimhen powered home a Moses Simon cross. Mohammed Tijani’s header kept in the 19th minute kept the host in front until that moment.

The result sealed the Super Eagles spot at the tournament next year, but it leaves Benin with all to do in their final game of the series against Libya away and Rohr says they were unlucky not to beat the Nigerian team.

” It was a fair result but we were unlucky because we had the better chances and organization to win the game. Nigeria is not a team that is easy to beat but if we had taken the chances we had with scores at 1-0 maybe the result would have been different”, he said.

He said they have now switched their attention to the final game against Libya in Benghazi, where a win or a low score defeat will help them book a spot at the AFCON if Nigeria beat Rwanda in Uyo on Monday.

” We have to avoid defeat but you don’t go to play for a draw, so we will use the confidence from our performance today to prosecute the game in Benghazi. Hopefully Super Eagles will beat Rwanda in Uyo”, he concluded.

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Austine Eguavoen has explained the factors that made the team to force host Benin Republic to a 1-1 draw in the AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

A clumsy start to the game saw them fall 0-1 . behind with goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali failing to deal with a routine header from Muhammed Tijjani in the 16th minute.

Nine minutes from time substitute Moses Simon helped Victor Osimhen to make atonement for his missed header in the first half with a peach of a ball, which he directed home for the leveler that effectively sealed Nigeria’s spot at the AFCON next year.

However as a team they failed to match the height expected of them with everyone available for selection. Eguavoen defended the display and congratulated the players for making it to the AFCON, which he said was their target coming into the game.

“It was a tough game and I congratulate the players for a spirited display in the second half that earned us the equalizer.

“The downpour made the game difficult for both teams, but I am happy we have the AFCON finals ticket in the bag ahead of the final game of the series against Rwanda in Uyo on Monday”, he explained.

The senior national team of Nigeria forced Benin Republic to a 1-1 draw in the race to be at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Victor Osimhen rescued a point for Nigeria with nine minutes left to play when his well placed header from a pin point delivery from Moses Simon drew Nigeria level. The result sealed their spot at the tournament with a game to spare.

However the Super Eagles were not at their best, and we pick five possible reasons why they struggled against a Benin Republic side who were playing at their adopted home ground in Cote d’Ivoire.

1. Poor Tactics: Coach Austine Eguavoen decision to go with a 3-4-3 formation limited the team’s loaded attack because the formation had them playing with five defensive minded players. The team improved almost instantaneously when he switched to a back four just before the start of the second half.

2. Starting Iheanacho: Not a bad player on his day but starting him on the right side of a three man attack is similar to setting him to fail. The decision also obstructed the balance of the team which was corrected before the second half when he was subbed off for Moses Simon, who set up Osimhen for the leveler.

3. Stanley Nwabali: The header which handed Benin Republic the lead was straight at him and he should have done better. His reflex wasn’t top there and it almost cost the team.

4. Osimhen Decisive But Wasteful – Although he drew the team level nine minutes from time with a firm header. He could have given the game an entirely different outlook if he had buried the header that was the last chance of the first half, and perhaps their only clear cut chance of the half. Going into the break trailing affected their display in the second half.

5. Knowing They Have Qualified Already – The players determination to push for a revenge at the stadium where their world cup campaign took a big hit when they lost 1-2 to the same team went really low when reports got to them that Libya’s win over Rwanda in Kigali has sealed their spot at the AFCON. They went into the game with nothing really to play for and only responded when it was clear that they could be beaten.