The Super Eagles of Nigeria will be looking to remain unbeaten in their eleventh game of the AFCON qualifiers on Tuesday when they trade tackles with the Crocodiles of Lesotho.
Nigeria is yet to lose an African Cup of Nations qualification match since falling 2-0 to South Africa at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo on June 10, 2017 while trying to reach Egypt 2019.
After their defeat to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa whose goals were courtesy of Tokelo Anthony Rantie and Percy Tau in the 54th and 81st minutes respectively, the Super Eagles are unbeaten in ten AFCON qualifiers.
Nigeria beat Seychelles 3-0 away on 8 September 2018, thrashed Libya 4-0 at home on 13 October 2018, defeated Libya 3-2 away on 16 October 2018, drew 1-1 with South Africa on 17 November 2018 and beat Seychelles 3-1 at home on 22 March 2019 to reach Egypt by topping their group.
The Super Eagles will now round off their 2022 AFCON qualifying campaign on Tuesday when they play host to the already-eliminated Lesotho inside the refurbished Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
And ahead of the game, the Eagles already clinched qualification for next year’s AFCON on Saturday before beating Benin Republic 1-0 in Porto-Novo after Lesotho and Sierra Leone played out a goalless draw.
So far during the 2022 African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Nigeria have won three matches and drawn the other two of five outings to stay on top of Group L which means they are on a ten-game unbeaten run in the AFCON qualifiers.
Nigeria defeated Benin 2-1 to kick-start the 2022 campaign, went away to beat Lesotho 4-2, surprisingly drew 4-4 with Sierra Leone at home before securing a drab goalless draw in Freetown and beating Benin 1-0 away last weekend.
Meanwhile, Nigeria have beaten Lesotho three times already in the AFCON qualifiers, 1-0 in 2006 in Maseru during the 2008 AFCON qualifiers, 2-0 in the reverse fixture of the same edition and 4-2 in the year 2019.
Alex Iwobi only last week during a chat with Complete Sports even before the win over Benin revealed that “the Super Eagles will like to conclude the qualifiers by staying unbeaten” and victory looks quite sure against Lesotho come Tuesday.
By Oluyemi Ogunseyin