The Leone Stars are in Nigeria again since 2011 when they fell to Samson Siasia-handled makeshift Super Eagles side, who managed to peg back their West Coast neighbours 2-1 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
The story will expectedly remain the same in Benin City as a seemingly disjointed Leone Stars from Freetown appear to be freely run over by coach Gernot Rohr’s men.
Head-to-head challenges clearly put the Super Eagles in the driver’s seat and the Leone Stars will have to do something extraordinary to halt the order.
Since April 22, 1961, when both sides met for the first time having lost to Nigeria 4-2 in a friendly, the Leone Stars only managed to win two encounters and lost nine times, drawn three times in subsequent 13 match-ups.
One of their wins will cause the dismissal of Jo Bonfrere as Nigeria coach to be replaced by Shuaibu Amodu.
The Benin date on Friday appears not to change anything as Eagles will expectedly edge this to move closer to the AFCON in Cameroon.
Administrative hiccups back home in Freetown saw coach John Keister retrace his steps into the dugout in August after walking out of the team.
Keister was welcomed back to the hot seat with a 2-1 loss in the last friendly against Mauritania in Nouckchott to further make his comeback more Herculean against the Super Eagles.
Wins in the double header in Benin and Freetown will book the Eagles tickets to Cameroon and Rohr and his men will not let the Leone Stars cut short their flight.
Leone Stars are nowhere near the Eagles in terms of quality and competitiveness save for FC Zurich defender Umaru Bangura, who is the current most capped player.
Striker Mustapha Bundu appears to have more troubles on his plate at Belgian side Anderlecht as his sharpness in goal has deserted him and he has lost his place in the first team.
The rest of the team are mainly drawn from the local league, which is trying to be back to life since Covid-19 restrictions.
Eagles, on the other hand, parade an intimidating squad despite some withdrawals and will welcome top striker Victor Osimhen back in the team and he will surely bring on his scoring boots.
Nigeria lead the qualifying group with six points after wins over Benin and Lesotho, while Sierra Leone are third with a point.
Surely, Eagles will again shoot down the Stars to fly to the AFCON in Cameroon.
