Nigeria Seek Conquest Of Liberia On ‘Neutral Ground’ In Morocco

Nigeria’s senior football national team, Super Eagles will be all out to snatch victory ‘away’ to Liberia in Saturday’s World Cup qualifier that will be decided in Tangier, Morocco, megasportsarena.com reports.

It is meant to be a home game for The Lone Star, but the refusal of Confederation of African Football (CAF) to clear any arena in their country for international matches means Saturday’s game is home-away-from-home for them.

In effect, Nigeria’s Eagles will try to take full advantage of the situation and rabble-rouse their way towards victory that would all but confirm their place in the final round and knockout stage of the African qualifiers for Qatar 202.

Nigeria need all three points in order to stay in contention to star in the knockout phase of the World Cup qualifiers, set for March 2022, for which only the group winners will proceed to play at that stage on home-and-away basis that will produce Africa’s five flag bearers in Qatar.

The Eagles look well poised though, as they enter Saturday’s game as group leaders with nine points, which is the maximum that Liberia can get even if they win their last two matches, but Nigeria have a home game against second placed Cape Verde in Lagos on Tuesday next week.

The Lone Star are bottom of Group C with three points and are set to play their final two games of the qualifiers at ‘home’ in Tangier, which is the venue they opted for after CAF ruled that there is no venue in Liberia fit to host international matches.

After facing the three-time African champions, The Lone Star will remain in Tangier for their final game of the campaign, which will also be next Tuesday and they will face The Wild Beasts of Central African Republic.

Cape Verde’s Blue Sharks, who hosts Central African Republic in Mindelo on Saturday, have seven points and will be hoping the Eagles stumble in Tangier to give them a chance of scaling through, but recent records show that could be wishful thinking.

The Eagles have scaled their last three major qualifying campaigns with matches to spare, and are confident of reaching the knockout round before the final day of the qualifiers by beating Liberia, and hoping Cape Verde are unhinged on home soil by The Beasts.

Nigeria reached the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals with a match to spare; a feat repeated in the qualifying series for the 2019 AFCON. For the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon, the Eagles qualified with two matches to spare.

On the other hand, Cape Verde’s Blue Sharks, with seven points, are at home to The Beasts on the island of Mindelo, hoping to garner another three points that could make the final Group C encounter with Nigeria in Lagos a cliff-hanger.

The full list of Nigeria’s invitees for both matches is led by three goalkeepers in John Noble from Enyimba of Aba, Daniel Akpeyi from Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa and Emil Maduka Okoye from Sparta Rotterdam of Netherlands.

Defenders: Chidozie Awaziem (Alanyaspor FC, Turkey); Kenneth Omeruo (CD Leganes, Spain); Leon Balogun (Glasgow Rangers, Scotland); William Ekong (Watford FC, England); Olaoluwa Aina (Torino FC, Italy); Jamilu Collins (SC Padeborn 07, Germany); Abdullahi Shehu (AC Omonia, Cyprus); Zaidu Sanusi (FC Porto, Portugal); Kevin Akpoguma (TSG Hoffenheim, Germany).

Midfielders: Frank Onyeka (Brentford FC, England); Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Galsgow Rangers, Scotland); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); Alex Iwobi (Everton FC, England); Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England).

Forwards: Ahmed Musa (Fatih Karagumruk, Turkey); Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal FC, Spain); Victor Osimhen (Napoli FC, Italy); Moses Simon (FC Nantes, France); Paul Onuachu (KRC Genk, Belgium); Chidera Ejuke (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Odion Jude Ighalo (Al-Shabab Riyadh, Saudi Arabia).