Nigeria kicked off the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup at home to Lesotho in Uyo and managed to salvage a 1-1 draw from the jaws of defeat. After missing out on the Qatar World Cup last year, you would have expected the Super Eagles to explode from the starting blocks, playing at home in the first match of Group C. Perish the thought. The players treated it like a stroll in the park with an attitude that seemed to suggest they only had to show up to put the three points in the bag.
This looked like a must-win game in a group that also includes South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Benin, with Lesotho on paper looking like the group’s whipping boys. Nine group leaders are meant to qualify automatically from Africa, with the four best runner-ups in the group games going into a playoff to determine which team will represent Africa in an inter-confederation playoff against other FIFA confederations, apart from Europe.
From the evidence on display, Nigeria didn’t look like contenders for top or runner-up positions in Group C. Lesotho passed the ball better as Nigeria continued to worsen by the game under coach Jose Peseiro.
They showed little ambition in the first half, playing loads of square balls among themselves in their own half before giving away possession once they got anywhere near the final third. Taiwo Awoniyi of Nottingham Forest led the line alongside Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface in the absence of Napoli hitman Victor Osimhen. Awoniyi has scored four goals in 10 games in the Premier League this season, but his clumsiness and timing suggest he can’t cut it at international level.
Bad decision making was the order of the day with Ademola Lookman the worst culprit out on the left of the Nigerian attack. The home team were sleepwalking through the match until jolted awake by a goal from Lesotho that wasn’t on the script. It came from a 56th header from a corner guided in by the unmarked Motlomelo Mkhwanazi.
Peseiro dragged off the ineffective Lookman and Awoniyi for Moses Simon and Terem Moffi. Simon was his usual lively self down the left, but continued with the trend of letting the team down with his final ball. It was all set up for what could have been one of the biggest shocks in African football until Semi Ajayi powered home a header in the 67th minute from a corner. This would have been the cue for opening up the floodgates for a team with a bit of imagination. Instead normal service resumed with misplaced passes, no pattern in the play, no discernible tactics and just hoping for the best.
Lesotho were by miles the better side, at least stringing passes together, having a game plan and a sense of purpose. The other teams in the group must be looking forward to playing Nigeria, while Nigeria’s foreign-based players were looking forward to escape back to their clubs. This is Nigerian football but not as we knew it in the days of Jay Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Finidi George and so on. The days when someone described their football as “rhythm and blues on the pitch”. For now, the current team just gives the fans the blues.
