Former Nigerian international Friday Ekpo believes the Super Eagles’ dream of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup is not over yet despite playing a 1-1 draw against South Africa in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
The Super Eagles’ failure to secure maximum points away to South Africa in Bloemfontein leaves Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup hopes hanging by a thread.
With two matches left to play in the group, Nigeria are 6 points behind South Africa, who are topping Group C with 17 points, while the Super Eagles are on 11 points alongside the Benin Republic, who have a match at hand.
Read Also:2026 WCQ: Super Eagles’ Hopes Stall After 1-1 Draw With Bafana
In a chat with Completesports.com, Ekpo stated that the team must win their remaining two games and still qualify as one of the best second-placed teams.
“The Super Eagles’ hope of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup is not over yet. The most important thing at the moment is for the team to win their remaining two games and hope other countries from other groups fail to get higher points.
“So, I still believe that the Super Eagles will make it to football’s biggest showpiece. The draw against South Africa doesn’t mean that we are out of the World Cup race.
“Until the final game, I am still optimistic Nigeria can qualify for the World Cup.”
3 Comments
I’m sure you don’t have the statistics of other teams who are second with over 16points and solid goal aggregate. They need to stop granting you people interviews. Our sports is terrible because of your kinds. Headmaster too didn’t complain of pitch before match. NFF didn’t petition before match that pitch was not fit for players. Lol although the two teams suffered injuries of their own, but SAFA got the needed result without a pre match petition of bad pitch. Noise and petition are two different things.
No mind Mr Friday jare
Benin 3 goals up already
Not forgetting they are playing on a neutral ground
We get it wrong right from that 1-1 draw against letoto
At least rohr will qualify for the play off….
We saw it coming and we cried but it fell on deaf ears….
At this junction i think nobody should blame anybody because we are the problem of ourselves….
okoye did a little blunder at the afcon and we pushed him out of the team, we lamented for the inclussion of Uzoho who later caused us 4 good points against Lesotho and Zimbabwe….conceding goals from impossible positions….we are now hunted by those flimsy mistakes of Uzoho which eventually contribute to our missing out on 2026 world cup….
Finidi also added to our sorrows though i will spare him a little because it was people that appointed him to come and add more salt to the injury….but he still contributed to our failure by inviting Tanimu over experience and seasoned defenders like Ugbo and co….
Finally, our arc enemy as far as football is concerned did the worst….infact, they are the reason of nigeria not going to 2 consecutive world cups…. i’m talking about our incompetent NFF….
We need a coach that can manage this team well…. A coach that knows the strength of every players and plays them at their appropriate possitions….
We need a world class coach to lead us to 2030 world cup….
we need to do away with some of these players and the current NFF boad….
my candid advice though….
***SHALOM***