The NEW Super Eagles of Nigeria are set to thrill the world with their exciting young talents at the FIFA World Cup set for Russia next year.
Following their stupendous qualification for the World Cup, Nigeria became the only one of Africa’s five representatives from the last World Cup who return for the 2018 edition in Russia and will be looking to better their place in the last 16 in Brazil.
A crop of exciting youngsters headline a team representing Africa’s most populous nation at their fifth World Cup appearance and will be looking forward to better their previous performance.
Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Henry Onyekuru and Moses Simon represent a new generation that has emerged since the 2014 finals as Nigeria surprisingly qualified easily from a tough group that included Algeria, who also reached the second round of the last World Cup, and African champions Cameroon.
Nigeria were the first African country to book a berth in Russia and finished unbeaten in Africa’s Group B, winning all their home games with two draws and a victory away under German coach Gernot Rohr, who was a surprise appointment just weeks before the start of the group phase of the preliminaries.
Africa’s best show at the World Cup was a quarter-final place for Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010), the Super Eagles, following the new wind blowing in the team are expected to better the quarter final show of their West African counterparts.
But there will be concern about Nigeria’s dependency on Victor Moses and John Obi Mikel, with the level of performances over the last year falling dramatically when they were absent.
Obi Mikel now plays his club football in China while his old Chelsea team mate Moses is the biggest name in Nigeria’s team.