The prospect of depleted resources in Praia means Nigeria have to win on Friday when the Lone Stars come calling in Lagos
By virtue of Wednesday’s 1-1 draw between Cape Verde and Central African Republic, Nigeria’s Super Eagles begin the Second Round of World Cup qualifying in a fairly strong position.
A win would immediately catapult them to the top of Group C, allowing them to lead from the front as has now become the custom under German coach Gernot Rohr.
However, this low-pressure situation is complicated to a great degree by ongoing UK travel restrictions.
Four days following Friday’s opening qualifier with Liberia, Nigeria will travel to Cape Verde shorn of its Premier League stars due to the island’s status as a ‘Red List’ nation. Any players traveling there would have to, upon return to the UK, quarantine for 10 days, rendering them unavailable to their clubs and robbing them of vital training and fitness work.
Cape Verde is a difficult away trip in most circumstances anyway, no thanks to the artificial surface in Praia. Their victory over Cameroon in March perfectly demonstrated this, as does the fact their last competitive defeat on their own patch came against Senegal in 2017.
The knowledge that he will be unable to rely on some of his best players for it makes a victory over Liberia not just expedient for Rohr, but imperative.
How the Super Eagles handle this pressure will be instructive.
Absolutely needing a result is not a familiar state of affairs for this group of players; arguably the one time they have been faced with similar – against Argentina at the 2018 World Cup – they wilted under the pressure of the moment.
Of course, Liberia are nowhere near as daunting a prospect. Nevertheless, the collective psychology in the face of this challenge will be important to observe.
If that seems to suggest Nigeria’s mental state is all that stands in the way of a win on Friday, that is because it does suggest exactly that.
While the Super Eagles have found travels to Freetown a difficult proposition since the turn of the decade, the home fixtures have been more straightforward: there was a 6-1 hammering en route to qualification for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, as well as a memorable 2-0 victory during the qualifying series for the 2002 World Cup that served as a turning point for the two teams’ qualification hopes.
Friday should prove no different.
This is, after all, a Liberia side that failed to progress past the preliminary round of Afcon qualifying, losing on penalties to an unremarkable Chad side that would go on to finish bottom of their qualifying group.
The Lone Stars are ranked 150th in the Fifa rankings, only better off than eight other African nations, and have not won a competitive match on away soil in over four years.
Eliminating Sierra Leone, who famously came through two encounters with Nigeria in Afcon qualifying unscathed, does deserve some recognition, of course.
In Kpah Sherman, they have a willing worker upfront who will chase hard and force defenders back, and Terrence Tisdell is the side’s technical leader from midfield. However, the fact they ply their club trades in Malaysia and the Turkish second division respectively serves to illustrate the chasm between Liberia and Nigeria.
Their most recent outing saw them thrashed 5-1 by an entirely home-based Algeria side in June.
The bar is set then: it will not be enough for the Super Eagles to win. It will also be necessary to win convincingly.
The absence through injury of Samuel Chukwueze complicates that somewhat.
The Villarreal winger’s directness and quick feet have the capacity to unbalance even the most obdurate opponent, and without him Rohr will have to make a choice between Moses Simon’s dour efficiency and the wild, mercurial nature of Samuel Kalu’s play.
The rest of the team pretty much picks itself beyond that, although some might suggest a midfield of Wilfred Ndidi and Oghenekaro Etebo is a little too negative against a side like Liberia.
Joe Aribo offers greater attacking impetus and technical ability than the Watford man, but struggled to hold down the middle of the pitch against Sierra Leone, and will likely miss out on that account. However, it is worth noting that the Super Eagles only found a second goal against Lesotho in March when Etebo stepped forward to arrive in the box.
At the risk of looking too far forward, it will also be interesting to see what Rohr’s approach is to bedding in the newer members of the team.
The likes of Kingsley Michael and Innocent Bonke have, on account of the UK Red List ban, been added to the squad for the trip to Cape Verde.
It would hardly be expedient to throw either or both of them in at the deep end in Praia without first introducing them here against Liberia, and so this fixture could also serve as something of a prep for Tuesday.
All the more reason to wrap the result up early on Friday.
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