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The Tremendous Eagles head to the Toyota Stadium in Bloemfontein for this night’s crunch fixture in Group C, having stored their qualification hopes alive with a hard-fought 1-0 dwelling victory over Rwanda.
New Wolves striker Tolu Arokodare got here off the bench at half-time to internet the one purpose of the sport in Uyo on Saturday, holding Eric Chelle’s facet third behind South Africa and Benin, who had defeated Lesotho and Zimbabwe respectively on Friday.
Nigeria now sit six factors behind Bafana Bafana and one adrift of Benin, with one computerized qualification spot on supply for subsequent summer time’s match in Canada, Mexico and america, and the 4 greatest runners-up from the 9 teams in African qualifying advancing into the play-offs.
The Tremendous Eagles – who didn’t qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – nonetheless should journey to Lesotho and host Benin of their closing pair of qualifiers in October, whereas South Africa are nonetheless ready to study if they are going to obtain any punishment for fielding an ineligible participant in opposition to Lesotho in March.
Nigeria’s win over Rwanda, whereas actually essential, was overshadowed by an harm to their talismanic striker Osimhen, who led the hosts’ assault on the Godswill Akpabio Worldwide Stadium however suffered a lower-leg harm after colliding with an opponent through the first half and initially tried to play by the problem, solely to get replaced 10 minutes earlier than the break by former Rangers frontman Cyriel Dessers.
It was an enormous concern to see Osimhen depart, although he appeared to observe the remainder of the sport from the bench.
“I’ve to additionally talk about with the group medical doctors to see whether or not he can be obtainable for the sport.”
Will Victor Osimhen play for Nigeria in opposition to South Africa?
He stated: “Osimhen is an enormous star, an excellent participant. Like I stated, I’ve a powerful squad too, with nice gamers on my facet. They’re sufficient for me.
“I’ll let you know one thing, they wish to play an awesome sport right here as soon as once more, so we don’t have the time to say Victor shouldn’t be right here or possibly we cried in our rooms after his harm.
“We’re collectively. We take into consideration our brother [Osimhen], however we’ve got a sport, and we’re united for tomorrow.”
With Osimhen dominated out for Nigeria, it stays to be seen who will get the nod in assault. Dessers was the substitute in opposition to Rwanda, although Arokodare made an impression off the bench and has scored in every of his final two video games for the nationwide group.
In the meantime, Galatasaray can be determined for Osimhen to return to full health forward of their opening Champions League match in Germany in opposition to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday, September 18.
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