The future of the head of the technical crew of senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro appears to be away from the team with reports in Egypt circulating that he has agreed to take over as coach of Zamalek, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Peseiro’s deal as the coach of the Nigerian team will expire after the Africa Cup of Nations next year, but it will be extended if he gets to the final of the tournament. That will likely not be the case if news coming out of Egypt is anything to go by.

According to the reports, the game against Zimbabwe in the world cup qualifiers which Nigeria drew 1-1 will be his last as coach of the team with a deal in place for him to take over the  vacant position of the Egyptian side.

The coach is not entirely new to coaching in Egypt as he had a short stint with Al Ahly. For now Zamalek are yet to deny the news making many to believe that indeed there are talks over the Portuguese taking over as coach.

His time as the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria hasn’t been the best with his team having just two points in the 2026 world cup qualifiers. Since taking over as coach he has lost 60 percent of the games of the team.

Kelechi Iheanacho scored a 67th minute goal to save Nigeria from defeat against Zimbabwe in a world cup qualifiers game which ended 1-1 in Rwanda.

Zimbabwe took the lead with a long range effort from Walter Musona which caught goalkeeper Francis Uzoho in no man’s land in the 26th minute.

They held the lead till the 67th minute when a through ball from Joe Aribo found Moses Simon in the box and he laid the ball on a plate for Iheanacho to finish with aplomb.

It ended that way with Nigeria now winless in their first two games of the series mounting more pressure on head coach Jose Peseiro, who will likely not be in charge when the team resumes the qualifiers series.

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has made six changes to the team that drew 1-1 against Lesotho in the opening game of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Uyo.

They will be eyeing a first win of the series when they take on Zimbabwe today in Rwanda. Ahead of the game which is scheduled for 2pmNigerian time, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal the Super Eagles starting lineup.

Peseiro handed a debut to Bayer Leverkusen winger Nathan Tella from the start ahead of Kelechi Iheanacho, who played from the right against Lesotho.

Moses Simon comes in for Ademola Lookman on the left while Terem Moffi will lead the line in place of the Injured Taiwo Awoniyi. Joe Aribo will play behind him, the same role Victor Boniface played in the last game, but this time around they will play in a 4-3-3 formation not Peseiro’s Favour 4-2-4.

In defence, the duo of Bright Osayi-Samuel and Jamilu Collins made way for Ola Aina and Bruno Onyemaechi as right and left full back respectively. Only four outfield players in Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey, Semi Ajayi and Frank Onyeka kept their spot.

Francis Uzoho starts in goal as expected.

Super Eagles Starting XI;

Francis Uzoho

Ola Aina

Semi Ajayi

Calvin Bassey

Bruno Onyemaechi

Frank Onyeka

Alex Iwobi

Nathan Tella

Moses Simon

Joseph Aribo

Terem Moffi

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has made six changes to the team that drew 1-1 against Lesotho in the opening game of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Uyo.

They will be eyeing a first win of the series when they take on Zimbabwe today in Rwanda. Ahead of the game which is scheduled for 2pmNigerian time, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal the Super Eagles starting lineup.

Peseiro handed a debut to Bayer Leverkusen winger Nathan Tella from the start ahead of Kelechi Iheanacho, who played from the right against Lesotho.

Moses Simon comes in for Ademola Lookman on the left while Terem Moffi will lead the line in place of the Injured Taiwo Awoniyi. Joe Aribo will play behind him, the same role Victor Boniface played in the last game.

In defence, the duo of Bright Osayi-Samuel and Jamilu Collins made way for Ola Aina and Bruno Onyemaechi as right and left full back respectively. Only four outfield players in Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey, Semi Ajayi and Frank Onyeka kept their spot.

Francis Uzoho starts in goal as expected.

Super Eagles Starting XI;

Francis Uzoho

Ola Aina

Semi Ajayi

Calvin Bassey

Bruno Onyemaechi

Frank Onyeka

Alex Iwobi

Nathan Tella

Moses Simon

Joseph Aribo

Terem Moffi

Former head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has fired a barb at the present coach of the team Jose Peseiro following their 1-1 draw against Peseiro in their first game in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Rohr’s team Benin Republic were beaten 2-1 by South Africa in their opening game of the qualifiers and in the build up to the game he was asked about Nigeria’s shock result against Lesotho on Thursday.

He said it’s funny that the only goal of the team came via a centre defender despite the fact that Super Eagles lined up with four attackers on the pitch.

“You know that I spent some years in Nigeria and we played even here in South Africa in Johannesburg against Bafana Bafana so you always have an eye on your former team”, he said before their defeat earlier today.

“I was suffering with them, I saw that they attacked without scoring a goal. They had to wait for a corner and a header of the big player Ajayi.

“Yes, they have problems, we know that they have big players, perhaps, they have the best players all over Africa in this team, some of them were not here, but still they had three center forwards, all wonderful players, fourth striker Lookman also, and Iwobi behind.

“Normally, you should win this game in Uyo in a a wonderful stadium, but like you saw all is possible in this group, there can be a lot of surprises and this was already one of them”.

Ade Emmanuel

The Brazilian coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Zimbabwe Baltemar Brito has revealed that his team will target the goalkeeper of the senior national team of Nigeria Francis Uzoho when both teams clash in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

Brito’s team started the race to be at the 2026 World Cup with a 0-0 draw away to Rwanda, while Nigeria were frustrated at home and had to come from behind to draw 1-1 against Lesotho in Uyo.

They arrived Rwanda, the adopted home ground of Zimbabwe for their second game and according to Brito his team will target the weak defence of the Super Eagles as well as first choice goalkeeper Uzoho, who has been guilty of making costly errors in recent games for the senior national team of Nigeria.

The coach said they are hopeful of getting a win against Nigeria with the idea of exploiting the Super Eagles defence and goalkeeper. ” We shall go into tomorrow’s match against Nigeria to thrash Nigeria and exploit their defensive frailties and goalkeeping weaknesses”, he said at the pre match presser ahead of the game.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

The future of the coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro is far from safe following a disappointing start to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers after they were held to a 1-1 draw by minnows Lesotho on Thursday.

Peseiro signed a short term deal to coach the Super Eagles until after the next AFCON following the expiration of his previous one year deal. But it appears he might be sacked before the AFCON if they fail to beat Zimbabwe in their second game in the qualifiers.

Reports from Egypt as relayed by foremost Nigerian journalist Osasu Obayiuwuna says the Portuguese coach applied for the vacant managerial position of Zamalek, and has already held talks as he eyes a return to Egypt where he once handled Al Ahly.

“I hear, from an Egyptian colleague in Cairo, that @NGSuperEagles coach Jose Peseiro has been in recent talks with top officials of @ZSCOfficial . I wonder what about..”, he posted on X.

The report is coming hot on the hells of OwnGoalNigeria.com exclusive with a chieftain of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), who said the coach will be fired if Nigeria failed to beat Zimbabwe.

” We will sack him if Zimbabwe get a win against us. There is nothing that says we must wait for the Africa Cup of Nations. We understand it didn’t work out well when Gernot Rohr was sacked close to the AFCON but this is entirely different. We will sack him to avoid missing out on another world cup and defeat to Zimbabwe will no doubt make it tough for us to qualify”, he rounded up saying.

Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman

Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro says the fixtures in group C of the qualifiers for the 2026 is skewed in the favor of South Africa, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Nigeria started their campaign in the qualifiers on a shaky note with a 1-1 draw against Lesotho in Uyo and will tomorrow take on Zimbabwe in their second group game of the series just 48 hours after the first game.

South Africa started the series on a sound note beating Benin Republic 2-1 and won’t be in action until three days time when they take on Rwanda in their second group game.

Peseiro lamented over the fact that Nigeria had to play their first game on Thursday, a time that didn’t afford them more training session with  most of the invited players arriving camp on Tuesday meaning they only had one full session before the game against Lesotho.

“We didn’t prepare well, even the players didn’t rest well because some players came on Monday, others on Tuesday. We could not train with intensity in that moment. Yesterday we trained but not with intensity because we must play today. For that I ask why the match was scheduled for Thursday.

“Next three days my team is going to play Zimbabwe. Why should South Africa play tomorrow, we played today. Why? I don’t know.

“Our team is the best in the group, we drew but I think we will win the next match but our players must make sacrifices”, he said shortly after the draw against Lesotho.

On the other hand, South Africa played three days later meaning they had more time to perfect their tactics and formation for the game against Benin Republic. Ahead of the second round of games, they still have more days to rest than Nigeria.

Mohammed Mowiz

The senior national team of Nigeria will take on the senior national team of Zimbabwe tomorrow in the race to be at the 2026 World Cup in USA, Mexico and Canada, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.

Both teams will head into the game searching for their first win of the series with Zimbabwe drawing 0-0 with Rwanda while Nigeria were surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by minnows Lesotho in Uyo.

Ahead of the game, we discovered that five England based players who were in the preliminary squad of Zimbabwe for the world cup qualifiers didn’t make the final list of players made public by head coach Baltemar Brito before the first game against Rwanda.

The Brazilian coach listed Liverpool teen star Isaac Mabaya, young Brentford goalkeeper Marley Tavaziva, Wolves’s Leon Chiwome, Tawanda Maswanhise of Leicester City and Tivonge Rushesha of Reading for a possible debut.

However none of the above mentioned players honoured the call up meaning they won’t be in the team when they take on the Super Eagles of Nigeria tomorrow, but Marvelous Nakamba of Luton Town is expected to start tomorrow.

Nigeria on the other hand have the full compliment of all the players called up for the game bar Taiwo Awoniyi who left the camp of the team yesterday with a groin injury.

Osas Mahawi