The Super Eagles will tomorrow against Benin in Abidjan be seeking for their first win in the qualifying series for the 2026 World Cup.
After three rounds of matches in the qualifying tournament, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are the only two teams in Group C yet to celebrate victory.
That will explain why both teams languish at the bottom of the standings.
Zimbabwe are bottom on two points, while the Super Eagles are second from bottom have recorded three points on the back of drawing their first three matches, two of which were at home.
This has been a very open group since Matchday 2 when Rwanda shocked South Africa at home to go top of the standings.
The unpredictability in this group was evident this past week after Benin beat erstwhile leaders Rwanda to record their first victory in the series and Lesotho stunned host Zimbabwe 2-0 to shoot to the summit of the table on five points.
“Everybody can beat everybody, it’s a very tricky group,” described South Africa coach Hugo Broos.
“This group is very tricky that after three games the results have been unbelievable with Lesotho on top.
“The little teams in Africa have progressed a lot, like we all saw at the AFCON, every team can take points from the other.
“This group will be decided on the final day, it will be tough till the last game.”
Super Eagles coach Finidi George is under serious pressure to lead the Super Eagles to victory tomorrow to lift hopes of a remarkable comeback by his team.
“The players want to go to the World Cup and they have resolved to give their all in every game going forward,” declared the former Enyimba coach.
“We had our opportunities against South Africa and should have won, but that is gone and we face another challenge now.
“We have resolved not to look too far ahead. The essence is to take it one match at a time.
“Benin are in our front now and we must deal with that squarely.”
The Super Eagles have enjoyed a superior head-to-head record against next-door neigbours the Cheetahs of Benin.
They have won 13, drew two and lost a game of the past 16 meetings against Benin.
Incidentally, Benin fell 1-0 to Nigeria in March 2021 in an AFCON qualifier with Gernot Rohr then in charge of the Super Eagles.
Nigeria really tried playing South Africa was hard nut to always crack as usually 1-1 draw is a fair game.
Super eagles let go….