Sports

High stakes as Eagles, Ghana battle for World Cup ticket

Published

4 years ago

March 29, 2022

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Without doubt, battles between Nigeria and Ghana are usually fierce ones and today’s encounter between both sides at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja will not be different as they vie for one of the five African tickets for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The Super Eagles host the Black Stars in the second leg of the final play-off for the World Cup, after the first leg ended 0-0 at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Friday, leaving this fixture evenly poised as both West African archrivals battle for a place at the biggest football showpiece in the world.

A tough challenge awaits Austin Eguavoen’s side, as they hope to qualify for a seventh appearance at the Mundial.

The 60,000-capacity Abuja stadium will be filled up for the mouth-watering clash after the Confederation of African Football gave approval to the Nigeria Football Federation to have full capacity.

The Eagles will hope to replicate the 2001 feat, when they held Ghana 0-0 in Accra before beating the Black Stars 3-0 in Port Harcourt courtesy of a first-half brace from Tijani Babangida plus a strike from Victor Agali to reach the 2002 edition in Korea/Japan.

However, there are growing concerns among some Nigerians, as the Eagles take on their long-time rivals in Abuja.

The three-time African champions have home support in Abuja, but arguably not the advantage, with Ghana knowing how valuable an away goal could be. They’ll also be emboldened by their performance in the midfield, where a trio of Thomas Partey, Iddrisu Baba and Mohammed Kudus impressed against Nigeria’s pair.

Without injured Wilfred Ndidi, the Super Eagles are missing arguably their most influential player, and, despite his promise, FC Lorient’s Innocent Bonke is a far inferior version of the Leicester City man. A combination of Ndidi’s absence and Ghana’s extra man in midfield completed ceded initiative to the Black Stars, and if Augustine Eguavoen doesn’t correct his errors in the return leg, then Nigeria could be Africa’s most high-profile World Cup absentee.

The Eagles are winless in their last six meetings with Ghana across (D3, L3) since a 1-0 victory in the AFCON back in 2006 – although each of the last three meetings ended goalless.

They have lost just one of their last 43 World Cup qualifiers (W28 D14), with that defeat coming against Central African Republic in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

Ghana on their part are winless in their last five games across all competitions (D2 L3) since a 1-0 victory against South Africa in the current World Cup qualifying campaign.

The Black Stars have also lost just one of their last 11 World Cup qualifiers (W5 D5), conceding just six goals in total during this period and never more than once in a game.

Sports

BREAKING: CAF overturns Afcon final result, declares Morocco winner

Published

3 days ago

March 17, 2026

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The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has overturned the result of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals and declare MOROCCO the winner of the title.

Senegal beat Morocco 1-0 in the final on 18 January in a match which was overshadowed when the Senegalese players refused to play after the hosts were awarded a stoppage-time penalty with the match goalless.

Following a delay of around 17 minutes, the players did eventually return and Brahim Diaz’s penalty was saved before Senegal’s Pape Gueye scored an extra-time winner.

However, that result has now been overturned by CAF.

A statement by the African Football’s Governing Body said that Senegal are “declared to have forfeited the final match” with the “result of the match being recorded as 3-0 in favour” of Morocco.

Sports

FG fulfils promises as D’Tigress receive national honours, house documents

Published

4 days ago

March 17, 2026

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The Federal Government has fulfilled its outstanding promises to the senior women’s national basketball team, D’Tigress, delivering National Honour certificates and title documents for houses in Abuja.

The presentation took place in Lyon, where the African Champions are currently participating at the FIBA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament.

The move follows a directive from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu aimed at clearing a backlog of promises made to the team following their 2023 Afrobasket victory in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, led the delegation alongside the Director General, Hon. Bukola Olopade. Speaking during the handover, Dikko characterized the prompt delivery as a “clear departure” from previous administrations, where state-promised rewards often faced multi-year delays.

“This is a prompt fulfilment of promises made by a President who leads with action,” Dikko stated. “Mr. President is giving every Nigerian athlete a renewed confidence that sports is a serious business capable of changing lives.”

While the physical assets (housing and honours) have been delivered, the NSC Chairman confirmed that the cash rewards promised to the squad are currently in the final stages of administrative processing. He assured the players that disbursement into their respective bank accounts is imminent.

The Director General, Hon. Bukola Olopade, noted that the current administration of President Tinubu is institutionalizing a “reward system” modelled after developed sporting nations to ensure high-performance outcomes.

President of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Engr. Musa Kida, credited the Presidency for prioritizing athlete welfare, citing it as a “legacy of a lifetime” for the sports sector.

Head Coach Rena Wakama and Captain Amy Okonkwo formally accepted the documents, affirming that the timely delivery of these incentives would serve as a catalyst for the team’s upcoming international qualifiers.

Sports

BREAKING: Ex-Eagles captainHenry Nwosu dies aged 62

Published

7 days ago

March 14, 2026

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Henry Nwosu, a former Nigerian international footballer and member of the 1980 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) winning team, has passed away.

He was 62.

His death was confirmed by fellow ex-international Segun Odegbami in a Facebook post on Saturday.

According to Odegbami, Nwosu passed away at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) in Ikeja after a five-day battle for his life.

He also revealed the details of Nwosu’s final days, stating that the man he fondly called “Youngest Millionaire” died at 4:00 a.m. after being in intensive care since Wednesday.

“After 5 days in hospital battling for his life, the one I call ‘Youngest Millionaire’ passed on at 4:00 am this morning at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos where he had been in Intensive Care since Wednesday,” he wrote.

“It is with deep pain in my heart that I have to be the conveyor of the news of the death of Henry Nwosu MON. May he rest peacefully with our Creator in Heaven.”