Reminiscing on Super Eagles past World Cup appearances

It is an open secret that after some failed attempts, Nigeria first appeared at the FIFA Men’s senior World Cup when the showpiece was hosted in the United States of America in 1994.

After USA 94, the Super Eagles have made five additional World Cup appearances. The only time they failed to reach the finals was in 2006 when they finished level on points with Angola in the qualification group but lost out on the infamous head-to-head rule.

Following Nigeria’s qualification for the playoff of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying series, Trust Sports takes a look at Super Eagles routes to their past World Cup appearances at USA 1994, France 98, Japan Korea 2002, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018.

1994 World Cup

40 African countries battled one another for just three slots allocated to the Confederation of African Football (CAF). In the final round of the qualifiers, Nigeria was put in Group A alongside Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria.

Nigeria played her first game away to Cote d’lvoire in Abidjan where Rashidi Yekini gave the Super Eagles an early lead through a breakaway goal but Cote d’Ivoire came from behind to win the game 2-1.

Pained from that loss, Nigeria bounced back in typical never-die-spirit fashion to pound Algeria 4-1 at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos on July 3,1993 while revenging the loss to Cote d’Ivoire by mauling the Ivorians 4-1 on September 25, 1993.

For the final qualifying match, the Eagles traveled to Algeria on October 8,1993 to earn a hard-fought 1-1 draw to qualify for the World Cup for the very first time.

Nigeria had five points, the same as Cote d’Ivoire, while Algeria came last with a paltry two points. The Super Eagles had a superior +5 goals difference that dwarfed Cote d’Ivoire’s -1 goal difference and the Clemence Westerhof boys were on the plane to USA 1994.

The set of ’94 considered by many as the greatest assemblage of Super Eagles, headed to the World Cup as reigning African champions, reached the quarter-final stage on their debut and were named the most exciting team of the tournament. They were also ranked the 5th best nation in world football by FIFA. This remains the highest position Nigeria ever attained in the ranking.

France 1998

38 African teams started the race for France 1998 but Mali and Niger Republic later dropped out leaving only 36 countries to fight for the five available tickets.

At the draws, Nigeria being one of the four highest-ranked teams according to FIFA advanced to the final round directly and were pitched against Guinea, Kenya and Burkina Faso in Group 1.

Nigeria won the group with 13 points to qualify for the World Cup. Although the Super Eagles suffered a narrow 0-1 loss away to Guinea in their final group match on August 16, 1997, back-to-back victories against Burkina Faso, 1-1 draw with Kenya in Nairobi on January 12, 1997, 2-1 win over Guinea in Lagos on April 5 and 3-0 drubbing of Kenya in Lagos on June 7, 1997 were enough results to land them in France.

Nigeria returned to the World Cup alongside Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, and South Africa and were drawn into group D with Spain, Bulgaria, Paraguay. Nigeria qualified for the second round but were unable to surpass the 1994 performance in the USA where they reached the quarter-finals.

For now, France 98 is the only World Cup Nigeria attended without playing against Argentina.

2002 World Cup

For Japan/Korea 2002, Nigeria was in Pool D with Eritrea who they defeated 4-0 on aggregate and were paired up against Liberia, Sudan, Ghana and Sierra Leone in Group B for the final round.

The Super Eagles literally snatched the ticket from ambitious Lone Stars of Liberia. The George Weah inspired Liberia led the table with 12 points after five matches while the Super Eagles trailed with seven points.

It was dicey but at the critical moment, the Super Eagles defeated Liberia 2-0 in Port-Harcourt and when Ghana did them another favour by beating the Lone Stars in Accra, the ball was in the court of the Super Eagles to beat Sudan in the final match to qualify for their third World Cup.

The Jay-Jay Okocha inspired Super Eagles didn’t allow the opportunity slip by as they travelled to Sudan and whipped their opponents 4-0 to reach Korea/Japan 2002.

At the World Cup, Nigeria was in the famed ‘Group of Death’ after being paired with Argentina, England and Sweden. The Super Eagles failed to advance beyond the group as they finished last with just one point from the 1-1 draw with England.

South Africa 2010

After failing to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, it was unthinkable for the supposed ‘giants of Africa’ to miss out on the first World Cup to be staged on African soil.

In the final round of qualifiers, Nigeria was grouped with Tunisia, Mozambique and Kenya. The Super Eagles topped the group with 12 points to land in South Africa.

At the World Cup proper, they were paired with perennial rivals, Argentina, South Korea and Greece but failed to advance to the knockout stage after losing two games to Argentina (0-1), South Korea (0-2) and drawing 2-2 with Greece in the final match. Nigerians will not forget in a hurry the infamous miss by Yakubu Aiyegbeni against Greece.

Brazil 2014

To secure a berth for the 2014 edition in Brazil, Nigeria had to navigate tricky ties against Malawi, Kenya and Namibia in Group F of the qualifying series.

The Super Eagles ended as group winners after earning 12 points garnered from 6 games. In the final round of the qualifiers, the coach Stephen Keshi led boys who were pitched with Ethiopia triumphed 4-1 on aggregate to qualify for their fifth World Cup.

In Brazil, yet again, Nigeria was paired with Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iran in Group F. The Super Eagles advanced to the knockout stage after securing four points from three games but were sent packing by France.

2018 World Cup

Just as in previous editions, Nigeria went into the 2018 World Cup qualifying series from the second round due to the FIFA ranking.

Nigeria began the qualifying series with a 2-0 aggregate win over Swaziland to progress to the final round where the Super Eagles Nigeria landed in the ‘Group of Death’ with the highest-ranked African team Algeria, Zambia and eternal rivals Cameroon – all former AFCON winners – in Group B. The Eagles qualified for the mundial with a game to spare with 13 points garnered from 6 games.

The Super Eagles were the first African team to qualify for the World Cup in Russia but were unable to advance to the knockout stage after being paired with Croatia, Argentina and Iceland.

Qatar 2022

This is what is on the mind of every football stakeholder in Nigeria. The Super Eagles are gunning for their seventh World Cup appearance but recent happenings in the team have left many in doubt and fear.

The qualifying series in Africa has reached the final round and Nigerians are waiting with bated breaths to know the country that would emerge as the final hurdle for the Super Eagles to surmount, if they are to land in Qatar.

The date for the draws for the playoff is yet to be announced by CAF. However, if it holds this month as was earlier mentioned, Nigeria will be seeded. Which means the Super Eagles would easily avoid Senegal, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

However, if the draws do not hold before the FIFA Arab Cup in Qatar and Egypt amass more points based on their performance in the FIFA sanctioned tournament, they might leapfrog Nigeria to become the fifth among the seeded teams.

If that happens, the Super Eagles would stand the risk of being paired with any of the top five, in this case, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

But NFF president, Amaju Pinnick, has since shot down such permutations. Therefore, if the draws are done based on the current ranking, Nigeria would only be paired against any of the unseeded nations like Egypt, Cameroon, Mali Ghana or Congo DR.

It is against this background that most Nigerians are praying fervently for their darling Super Eagles to get a ‘favourable’ playoff opponent for Qatar 2022.