The German coach Gernot Rohr coached Nigeria for five years but his employers the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) always felt the team could be better than the uninspiring stodge that his teams served up. The Benin side he coached in this World Cup Africa Group C qualifier against his former team was everything Nigeria has not come close to replicating in recent times. They played with verve, worked hard for each other and strung passes together while the supposedly superior Nigerians seemed to be going through the motions without concern for the outcome and what was at stake.
Nigeria started their quest for World Cup qualification in November last year with a 1-1 draw at home to Lesotho. We said at the time that they seemed keen on missing out on a second World Cup in a row, after not qualifying for Qatar in 2022.
Three draws later and going into the fourth round of games, Finidi George’s side seemed to have decided that if the fans were tired of drawing games, they should add some losing spice to the mix.
Benin were only too happy to oblige and defender Calvin Bassey was in a very generous mood. He gifted Benin their equaliser after Raphael Onyedika had capped a good first half showing with a superbly-taken goal in the 28th minute. Less than 10 minutes later Bassey was too casual with a ball that could have been easily cleared. Instead he miskicked it towards his own goal when he was the last line of defence. Jodel Dossou was only happy to pounce and beat Stanley Nwabali in Nigeria’s goal.
It went from bad to worse in added time before the break as Steve Mounie doubled Benin’s tally from a flick after a corner. Nigeria had looked shaky from set-pieces all match, possibly missing the commanding presence of skipper William Troost-Ekong and very likely not being drilled on defending or attacking corners in training.
Anyone expecting this setback to put some fire in the bellies of the Nigerians would have not watched the last three matches. Players, individually and collectively, failed to rise to the occasion. Samuel Chukwueze on the right side continued to disappoint with poor decision making. Alex Iwobi was meant to be the creative hub of the team. He should have been helped by having a double pivot behind him in Onyedika and Wilfred Ndidi. But the Fulham midfielder kept dropping deeper. This Nigeria side just doesn’t create enough chances to at least make opposing goalies earn their money. Terem Moffi upfront for Nigeria might as well have sat on the bench.
The team struggled to string passes together unlike Benin and kept giving the ball away cheaply even with the most simple of passes.
The second half was more of the same and with still no pattern, no urgency, no plan from the team a goal down. It looks right now that, barring a miracle, there is no hope of Nigeria being present at the 2026 World Cup. No one can argue their absence wasn’t well deserved.
George said after the game “we can’t throw in the towel”. Very few fans would complain if he was thrown out and the towel was kept.
