2026 World Cup Qualifier: Super Eagles Battle Zimbabwe’s Warriors In Uyo

• Fans want early goals for victory

BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI – Nigeria’s Super Eagles will today seek to stretch their graceful flight to the 2026 FIFA World Cup playing host to the Warriors of Zimbabwe in Matchday 6 of the African qualifiers.

With battles for the Mundial tickets, to be co-hosted by the USA, Canada, and Mexico, intensifying every match day, Nigeria ranks among the several continental giants aiming to consolidate their positions in the Group standings.

Thanks to the massive victory in Kigali last Friday, the Eagles have strongly revived their qualification hopes in the fiercely competitive Group C campaign with five other nations.

Interestingly, ahead of today’s encounter slated for the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Super Eagles handler, Coach Eric Chelle and team captain William Troost-Ekong are upbeat that Nigerians will surely have reasons to smile again after the 90 minutes debacle against the visiting Zimbabweans.

Still celebrating his managerial debut that delivered a 2-0 victory over Wasps of Rwanda, Coach Chelle told reporters; “We had a productive training session yesterday, and we plan to wrap up our preparations this evening.”

According to him, “I’ve had discussions with the players, and we must focus on Zimbabwe and put in the hard work.”

On his part, National team captain, William Troost-Ekong said the team had already put the Rwanda match behind them and have been concentrating solely on winning the tricky tie against Zimbabwe.

Ekong, who has so far worn 76 caps for Nigeria since 2015, said; “There are no easy games in Africa. We’re preparing to keep improving and are looking forward to the game.

Further expressing the team’s resolve to meet the challenge head-on, the Super Eagles dependable Centrer Back acknowledged the coach’s influence in shaping the team’s system.

He said; “We have intelligent players who will quickly adapt. We possess the quality, and we need to demonstrate it on the pitch”.

Nigeria goes into this encounter in fourth (4th) position, with just one win from five group games, while Zimbabwe stays bottom of Group C, having failed to win any of their five outings so far.

As expectations among Nigerian fans heighten, football experts are predicting that the Eagles will have a good mileage by scoring early goals in the first half.

The contention is that though Nigeria has had an underwhelming World Cup qualifying campaign so far, the away win in Kigali should be the morale-booster to easily pick up the three points at stake and further enhance their placing on the table.

More so, having shown remarkable improvement across all their outings since September 2024 in which they have only conceded three goals across seven games, the Super Eagles should overcome the struggling Zimbabwean Warriors who have lately gone winless in their last three games.

In the eight meetings between both countries, Zimbabwe have won once in a friendly back in 1981 while Nigeria have won four times and drawn the other three. Their highest score line being a 5-1 victory.

On the current FIFA rankings, a massive 77-place gap exist between the two nations. The Super Eagles are ranked at number 44 with 1482.23 points while the Zimbabweans are at number 121 with 1151.06 points

No doubt, victory in this fixture would further boost Nigeria’s prospect of catching up with Benin Republic and South Africa in the Group as both sides also face-off today in Abidjan due to Benin’s lack of FIFA approved turf.

Posting four wins and two draws in their last seven, the Super Eagles are indeed favourites against the Warriors in this fixture.

Tuesday, 25th March 2025 Fixtures
Group H
13:00: Botswana vs Somalia
Group D
16:00: Angola vs Cape Verde
Group C
16:00: Benin vs South Africa
Group C
16:00: Nigeria vs Zimbabwe
Group C
16:00: Rwanda vs Lesotho
Group G
16:00: Uganda vs Guinea
Group F
19:00: Burundi vs Seychelles
Group D
19:00: Cameroon vs Libya
Group A
19:00: Egypt vs Sierra Leone
Group K
19:00: Sudan vs South Sudan
Group G
21:00: Algeria vs Mozambique
Group I
21:00: Comoros vs Chad
Group B
21:00: Mauritania vs DR Congo
Group L
21:00: Senegal vs Togo
Group E
21:30: Morocco vs Tanzania