2026 World Cup : Super Eagles qualification hang on the balance , play 1-1 draw with South Africa
The hope of Nigeria reducing the gap of Group C leaders, South Africa in the qualifying series of the 2026 World Cup suffered set back as the team today played out a 1-1 draw with Bafana Bafana.
In the highly explosive encounter played at the Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, the team rallied from one goal down to ensure they share points with their host.
The South Africans who didn’t want to give anything to chance were the more purposeful side in the first half, controlling the midfield and dictating the pace of the game with the Eagles committing some avoidable errors that prevented them from having full control of the game.
It was an own goal scored by Captain William Troost Ekong after 25 minutes of play that gave the South Africans an early lead.
This goal spurred the Super Eagles into action as they became more attacking minded and their efforts paid off when Calvin Bassey restored parity on the stroke of half time to end the first half 1-1.
On resumption of the second half both coaches made changes but that was not enough to produce any other goal ensuring that both teams shared points at the end of the full 90 minutes.
With this result, South Africa still maintains their first position with 17 points while Nigeria is on 11 points.
The top team qualifies automatically, while the team in second spot enters the playoff.
With this result, the Super Eagles need to win their remaining matches to finish second which might give them a chance at qualification through intercontinental playoffs. But, even for at that, , they need to be among the four best runners-up in the nine groups of CAF qualifying series
