Former Super Eagles captain Mikel Obi has showered special praise on Victor Osimhen for rising to the occasion to ensure that Nigerians could still dream of their team playing at next year’s World Cup.
Last month, Osimhen fired a hat-trick for the Super Eagles fly past Benin 4-0 to make the CAF World Cup Playoffs on the final day of the qualifying tournament.
“Our (Nigeria) World Cup dream is still alive,” Mikel Obi on his Obione Podcast.
“I spoke about it before the last two games. I said whatever is happening, whatever is going on with the FA, all the negativity, all the corruption and everything that is going on, those two games were must-win games, and we did that.”
Mikel singled out Osimhen for special praise.
“Credit to the boys, they absolutely did that, and of course, the main man we’ve talked about so many times on this podcast,” he remarked.
“Absolutely brilliant. Yes, it was against Benin. People can say he scored a hat-trick, but you still have to score this hat-trick; you still have to show up. It was our biggest game of the season.
“If we didn’t win that game, we wouldn’t be talking about trying to qualify for the World Cup.
Victor Osimhen has singlehandedly kept us alive. One of the biggest games, he’s come out and scored a hat-trick. You can see the intensity, passion, and aggressiveness he shows.
“When the pressure is on, the big boys step up, and that’s exactly what he has done. He’s the big boy in that team right now, and we all needed him.
The games that he didn’t play and the number of games that we won without him compared to the games we won with him in the team are incredible.”
