King Of Drama 🇳🇬 | World Cup Qualifiers
**Before you read; I wrote this as a Nigerian and the pronouns 👉"Us" & "We" are used for NIGERIA
I must say, ever since I have been watching football and World Cup qualifications, this is the craziest one I have ever witnessed — and it’s fun too because I doubt I would still be this interested in anticipating Nigeria’s chances of getting a World Cup slot if not for all the dramas happening currently.
South Africa Deduction of 3 Points; Ever since we knew that the road had become very difficult for us about three to four months ago, we placed high hopes on the possibility of FIFA deducting 3 points from South Africa because they fielded an ineligible player in their match against Lesotho. It was tricky and it seemed as if FIFA was not going to do it, but they eventually did — and that threw us into a party because that act opened a slight chance for us to make it through the group. But as it’s looking currently, hope has been lost again, and maybe just 0.8% of hope remains for our chances of making it to the 2026 World Cup.
As It Stands;
In the two matches remaining in our group, Nigeria needs to win both with a good number of goals and also hope that South Africa and Benin lose theirs in order for us to secure a spot in the World Cup. Is that even possible? Can South Africa, who are very angry and hungry, lose their matches against the underrated Zimbabwe and Rwanda? What of Benin also losing to Nigeria and Rwanda? It looks almost impossible, but there’s nothing impossible with God. Oh yes, we are Nigerians and we like to bring God into play even in football. Lol.
There’s Something Cooking in the Corner Again;
What a dramatic World Cup qualifier it has been! It’s my first time learning about what happens in a situation where one of the countries among the various nations withdraws from the tournament, making the calculations unbalanced. In such a situation, points are deducted from certain nations to balance up the table. Currently, a particular country called Eritrea withdrew from the competition, and if points deduction comes into play, it might favour Nigeria in securing a spot among the play-off teams. So you see how dramatic it has been? Another twist keeps coming up!
Today is Match Day:
Lesotho takes on Nigeria. Zimbabwe takes on South Africa. Rwanda takes on Benin.
All of them will be played this evening (10th October 2025).
Thanks for reading