Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Technical Director, Austin Eguavoen, and Super Eagles’ goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, are sure that Nigeria will qualify for the 2026 World Cup despite its poor position on the Group C table.
 
South Africa leads Group C of the World Cup qualifying series with 13 points, followed by Rwanda and the Benin Republic with eight points, while Nigeria is fourth with seven points. 
 
However, despite the six-point gap between South Africa and Nigeria, Eguavoen stated that the Super Eagles still have the opportunity to overtake the leaders with four games remaining in the series, according to aclports.com.
   
“It’s easier said than done, but we have the potential and the personnel.“The World Cup is the highest level of football anyone wants to participate in. It’s a tightrope we’re walking, but everything is possible.
 
“With the boys we have now and every Nigerian coming together, it is doable. I’m 100 per cent sure because the players want to be at the World Cup.
 
“I’m not looking back at the last game, I’m looking forward to the next one. That’s the mindset: one game at a time, treat every game like a final.”
 
Echoing Eguavoen’s optimism, Nwabali admits that no opponent can be underrated, adding, however, that there is still plenty to play for despite the Super Eagles’ underwhelming start to the campaign.
  
“It’s football — being Nigeria doesn’t automatically mean we’ll beat everyone,” Nwabali said in a report published by soccernet.ng.
 
“We still have a good chance to qualify despite our current position. We’re focused on the next game, and we’ll keep pushing to turn things around.”
 
The Super Eagles must now shift their attention to a make-or-break September double-header — first hosting Rwanda before a tricky away trip to South Africa.
 
The former African champions will then face Lesotho away and Benin at home in October, rounding off what has been a tense qualification series. Having missed out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Nigeria are desperate to avoid back-to-back absences from the world stage. The Super Eagles have qualified for six of the last eight World Cups and famously reached the round of 16 in 1994, 1998, and 2014.