The Super Eagles have been given a very difficult group enroute the 2018 Fifa World Cup billed for Russia
Nigeria will face rivals Cameroon, Zambia and in the qualifying race for the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Russia.
Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroon were three of the five African qualifiers for the last World Cup.
Group B was completed by Zambia, shock winners of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, after a one-hour ceremony in Cairo. Each of the five group winners qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
Cameroon (seven appearances) and Nigeria (five) are the most successful African countries in World Cup qualifying and Algeria (four) have also done well.
Famed French coach Herve Renard, the only man to win the Cup of Nations with two countries, is now in charge of Morocco and they will come up against his former team, Ivory Coast, in Group C.
This mini-league has a distinct French flavour with Michel Dussuyer coaching the Ivorians and Alain Giresse in charge of Mali. Gabon compete the line-up. Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo look the strongest teams in Group A, which includes Guinea and Libya.
Egypt face Ghana, who beat them 7-3 in a 2014 World Cup play-off, in Group E along with Congo Brazzaville and Uganda. Senegal will be expected to top Group D with Cape Verde, South Africa and Burkina Faso their rivals.
The first matchday is scheduled for October 3-11 this year and the last for November 6-14 next year. Before the draw, the audience stood silent for a minute in memory of Nigerian football legend Stephen Keshi, a Cup of Nations winner as a player and coach who died this month aged 54.
The weeks preceding the event were overshadowed by constantly changing FIFA African rankings, on which the seedings were based, due to protests from unnamed national football associations. After monthly FIFA rankings covering all the continents were released early June, an updated version covering only Africa was issued following Cup of Nations matchday 5 qualifiers.
Further protests led to fresh rankings being issued three days before the draw only for those to be declared null and void by a FIFA emergency committee.
The seedings used in the draw were those released after the Cup of Nations qualifiers with Tunisia the big winners, moving from second to first seeds. Egypt (first to second seeds) and Guinea and Cameroon (second to third) were the chief losers amid growing confusion.
DRAW IN FULL
Group A: DR Congo, Libya, Guinea, Tunisia
Group B: Zambia, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria
Group C: Gabon, Morocco, Mali, Cote D'Ivoire
Group D: Burkina Faso, South Africa, Cape Verde
Group E: Ghana, Egpyt, Congo, Uganda
Here is how all the groups look after the draw #AFWCQ pic.twitter.com/4Jgl1HMy8Q— CAF (@CAF_Online) June 24, 2016
DO YOU THINK NIGERIA WILL TOP THIS GROUP AND QUALIFY FOR THE WORLD CUP?
Are you sure these people are really doing draws? How can they put these four countries together, Na wa o
ReplyDeleteWhere is the death here? It is the attitude of the players coach and NFF that is the death not the group.
ReplyDeleteWith the kind of FA we have, Nigeria should forget the world cup. There is no group of death anywhere. Our death are those pot bellied men in the FA. None of those countries can stand up to Nigeria's pedigree. But when you have Chris Giwa plotting to destabilize the whole qualification campaign and NFF technical committee and Chris Green hoping to steal as much as possible and frustrate any coach that comes in, tell me how we can qualify?
ReplyDeleteDisappointed when one calls the group of death. Did not see any death in this group.
ReplyDeleteGroup of wetin? Play ball jor.
ReplyDeleteI see positive in this draw,nigeria play better and give their all when playing against a better or strong opponents, more so the issue of bad pitch is out of it,trust me we ll qualify
DeleteFootball! Nigeria is going to the olympics in the summer 🎆 and I'm hopeful new Stars 🌃 will come through. Momentum will be built and the Super Eagles will be devastating. I'm so glad we didn't get any "minnow" in our group cos we always come out stronger when our backs are on d wall. No fears jare. We will qualify!
ReplyDeleteFear factor has set in again. Let calculate, planned our success on others failures and finally add prayers as usual instead of proper preparations. No group of death anywhere!
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to be afraid of this country. Each time to play qualification games we are always in group of death, what would other countries call their own? Group of hell? Is Nigeria d worst team there? So Zambia is even stronger than us? We already knocked ourselves out of it. To qualify for World Cup u should be a champion, this also champions league. World Cup is a big stage and u must show character to participate. Super eagle and Nigerian should stop all dis noise about d group of death.
ReplyDelete