Former Nigeria midfielder, Mutiu Adepoju, has reacted to the furore trailing the Super Eagles’ 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, insisting that football is not mathematics in which permutations yield definite results, Completesports.com reports.
The Super Eagles played out a 1-1 draw with the Crocodiles of Lesotho on Thursday, November 16 at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium.
They subsequently eched out another 1-1 draw with the Warriors of Zimbabwe on Sunday, November 19 at the Huye Stadium in Rwanda.
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The Nigerian team missed the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and they have started their quest to make the 2026 FIFA World Cup party on a dismal note hence triggering the ongoing fans’ remonstration.
In an interview with completesports.com, Adepoju said things that were not expected usually occur in football.
“Football is not mathematics. Everybody thinks that we should beat Lesotho and Zimbabwe and on paper that shouldn’t be the case but it has happened,” Adepoju, a 1994 AFCON winner, said in a brief chat with Completesports.com
“We just have to try much more. It happens like that in football. – things that you don’t expect.”
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The Super Eagles are currently third in Group C of the 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers with two points after two games in the series.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualifiers will resume after the 2023 AFCON when the Super Eagles will host Bafana Bafana of South Africa on June 3, 20,24 and face home side, the Squirrels of Benin Republic, on June 10.
The Jose Peseiro-led side is set to participate in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations will run from January 13 to February 11 2024 in Ivory Coast. The Super Eagles are in Group A along with Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Guinea Bissau.
By Toju Sote
3 Comments
If NFF let Peseiro to lead Super Eagles to the next AFCON. in Cote De’Ivore 14 January 2024 , NFF technical committee must order him to play Nigeria football style of play; that means he must play with quick short passes , crosses balls highy or ground crosses, must play with formation 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with excellent through passes by Iwobi and Ndidi; he also must play with strict and drastic defensive style when SE lose the ball , so that means he must play with total style of paly , all players defend when they loose the ball, depend on counter attack when they keep the ball; with this style of playing I think SE can offer excellent results, then will play high quality football in the next AFCON. tournament; also NFF technical committee must order Peseiro to summon an old guards just like Ahmed Musa, Victor Moses, Odion Ighalo,Ogeny Onazi, Sunday Mba, with adding Alhassan yousuf, Fasiyo Bashiru, Anderson Esiti, then he must dump Uzoho, Okoye and summon Arthur Okonkwo and Noah Otubolu instead of them.
Ha, football don become mathematics ooo. That’s why all man don go buy calculator, so we can perform permutation and combination. This is the problem NFF ONIGBESE has landed us in.
People like you Mr Adepoju are not putting enough pressure on the Nigerian government to invest in GRASSROOT DEVELOPMENT OF FOOTBALL IN NIGERIA THROUGH THE SCHOOL SYSTEM – PRIMARY< SECONDARY & TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS. The United States develop all sports through their school system, why can't we do same afterall we had a semblance of such school sports development from the colonial era till early 1980s when our politicians threw sports out of our school system. Our school systems can throw up talents in their 100s of thousands annually which will change our league for ever and impact our National teams possitively .I strongly believe that about 60% of the present Super Eagles players wouldn't made it to the National team if we were developing our football at the grassroot/school system