The Super Eagles are not making the mistake of thinking too much about the showdown with South Africa’s Bafana Bafana in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, but are rather focused on their clash with Rwanda’s Amavubi in Uyo on Saturday.

Team captain William Troost-Ekong, speaking on Thursday, emphasised the importance of taking the games one step at a time.

Ekong said, “You take one step at a time. We have Rwanda to play on Saturday, and there are three points there.

After that is concluded, we begin to think of South Africa. There are three points also in there when we play in Bloemfontein, but that is a few days after Rwanda. Rwanda comes first.”

The Super Eagles have not had a campaign to shout about, especially in the first four matches, of which they won none. Still, Ekong insists that the squad has committed to taking all points in the remaining games, believing that will be good enough to send Nigeria to the 48-nation finals in North America next summer.

He added, “We will do our very best to go all out and win the remaining four matches. Hopefully, that will be good enough to take us there.”

The encounter with Rwanda, who lost the Matchday 5 that brought both teams at loggerheads in Kigali in March, is a Matchday 7 fixture, while the confrontation with South Africa is a Matchday 8 encounter.

Observers have drawn parallels to the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, where the Super Eagles were focused on a potential Match-of-the-Tournament clash with Brazil in the quarter-finals, and failed to focus on their Round of 16 tie with Denmark. Following a 4-1 thumping of Nigeria in the game, Denmark’s ace winger Brian Laudrup said at the post-match conference: “Nigeria should learn to count one before four.”

Nigeria’s camp reached full capacity on Wednesday evening with the arrival of midfielders Raphael Onyedika and Christantus Uche, and forwards Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, and Tolu Arokodare.