The Super Eagles of Nigeria will be up against neighbours Benin in the penultimate fixture of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Thursday, with the permutation pretty straightforward.
Augustine Eguavoen’s men need at lest a draw to book to their place in next year’s finals in Morocco which is achievable considering they are yet to lose a game in the ongoing qualifiers. They also defeated the Cheetahs 3-0 in Uyo in the reverse fixture.
The Super Eagles however do not have a pleasant experience playing in Abidjan. They lost 2-1 to Ivory Coast in the 2023 AFCON final at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium while they lost to Benin by the same scoreline in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers back in June at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny.
Those were two big blows as the first one denied the them a fourth AFCON title while the other one put them in a difficult position in their bid to qualify for the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico in two years time, which ultimately cost ex-international Finidi George his job as head coach.
🇧🇯 Benin Republic 🆚 Nigeria 🇳🇬
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— AfroSport (@AfroSportTV) November 11, 2024
It is not that Nigeria are not capable of winning in Abidjan, they after all did it during the AFCON 2023 tournament, getting wins against Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon and Angola at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny while they drew Equatorial Guinea at Stade Alhassan Ouattara before defeating the Ivorians in the group stage.
The reality and situation is however different now, particularly for Benin who are just one point ahead of Rwanda in second place and will be wary as the Amavubi who take on the Mediterranean Knights of Libya three hours before kick off in Abidjan.
The outcome of the game in Kigali, which on paper should favour the Rwandans after the Libyans were dealt a blow in their efforts to intimidate Nigeria last time out would mean Benin under former Eagles coach Gernot Rohr will be more than pumped up to do the needful by getting a result over their neighbours.
The result from the World Cup qualifier will be seen as a moral boost for Benin seeing it was their first win over Nigeria in 16 meetings. The sight of carrying Rohr aloft like they had just won a title shows how important that victory was to the nation of 13.7 people which Nigeria’s biggest commercial city Lagos is bigger than (estimated 21 million).
Abidjan is friendly territory for the Beninoise who are not playing in their home country and who knows maybe they will get extra support from their Francophone fellows, the Ivorians.
This will put even further pressure on Eguavoen’s side remembering how choked the AFCON 2023 final was with Ivorian support that it was almost impossible for Nigeria fans to breathe (in the comical sense).
The Super Eagles must therfore not underestimate Benin and go all out in Abidjan to get all the three points for the sake of bragging rights over their neighbours and also to demonstrate that playing in the Ivorian commercial capital is not turning out to be a jinx of some sorts.
