From 2 pm Nigerian time today (Tuesday), the Super Eagles will go up against the Amavubi of Rwanda at the Amahoro National Stadium, Kigali seeking maximum points to consolidate their leadership of Group D of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.
Last Saturday, the Nigerian national senior football team took their revenge over neighbours, Benin Republic with a 3-0 result at Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital to pay the Beninois back on their own coins after beating the Super Eagles 2-1 in a FIFA World Cup qualifiers last June in Abidjan, their adopted home ground in Côte d’Ivoire.
Rwanda forced hosts Libya 1-1 on Matchday 1 of the AFCON qualifiers a week ago.
Super Eagles head coach, Augustine Eguavoen will be looking onto two-goal hero against Benin Republic, Ademola Lookman and Africa’s player of the year, Victor Osimhen, who emerged from the bench to continue to the goal haul, to produce more goals in Kigali. This time, Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface may be on the bench from the start.
Eguavoen confirmed on Monday that all 23 players in the Super Eagles’ abode at the Radisson Blu are fit and ready, meaning that goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali should be expected to start, alongside captain William Troost-Ekong, Semi Ajayi and Calvin Bassey at the heart of defence, while Olaoluwa Aina and Bruno Onyemaechi will be wingbacks.
Wilfred Ndidi will possibly anchor the midfield that will have Alex Iwobi or Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, while Lookman, Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze could still start at the fore.
Eguavoen started his fourth stint with the Super Eagles on a fabulous note last Saturday, and the 58-year-old intends to continue along the win-and-smile path against Rwanda.
He said: “We play to win all the time, because Nigerians expect their team to win all the time. And because we have a team with great personnel, we play every team with respect but we don’t get intimidated by any.
“Our objective for Tuesday’s game is the three points”.
At the pre-match post conference on Monday, Troost-Ekong echoed his coach: “We are here for a purpose. With Coach Eguavoen, who has coached the team before, we all feel like a family. We will play for each other and go for the three points that will establish us at the top of the table”.
Coach Torsten Spittler, a German, has roused the country of 13 million people to believe that the Amavubi can overcome Nigeria, Libya and Benin Republic in the qualifiers, and earn their first AFCON ticket since 2004. He flaunts an impressive record, having led the team to win three of their last eight matches, drawing four and losing one.
Spittler intends to set defenders Claude Niyomugabo, Fitina Omborenga, Ange Mutsinzi, Jean Claude Niyomugabo and Christian Ishimwe against Nigeria’s twin-terrors Lookman and Osimhen.
In the midfield, Olivier Niyonzima, Bonheur Mugisha and Jean Bosco Rubineka can prove a handful on their day, and at the fore, Spittler has implicit confidence in Gilbert Mugisha, Bienvenu Mugenzi and Innocent Nshuti, who got the team’s equaliser against Libya in Tripoli last week.
Tuesday’s encounter is the first of four battles between the Super Eagles and the Amavubi in the next 12 months, with the two teams to clash in November in Nigeria in the final round of this qualifying race, and then do a home-and-away in the 2025 FIFA World Cup race with East Africans also hosting Nigeria first in March next year.
There have been four previous clashes at Grade A level and another one at the lower African Nations Championship contest. In none had the Rwandans prevailed. The best they had obtained were drawn matches of which there are three instances.
But the two won matches with identical scorelines of 2-0 were not easy for the Super Eagles.
