The President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, has expressed optimism that the Super Eagles would pick the Russia 2018 World Cup ticket at the expense of Zambia, Algeria and Cameroon.
Pinnick gave this assurance shortly after the Super Eagles’ Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers opponents were revealed at the draw ceremony held in Cairo, Egypt on Friday.
According to him: “It is a tough draw, but then I have always said that you have to beat the best to get to the World Cup.
“Now we have the draw, we know how to prepare.
“The preparation has to start right now and we must make good use of every single day leading to the kickpoff of the series.
“The other pools are tough as well, because for me you can never afford to underrate any team these days.
“Now we must quickly sort out the issue of Head Coach and his assistants and put every other thing in place in good time.”
It can be recalled that Algeria knocked Nigeria out of the race to the 1982 FIFA World Cup, but Nigeria also overpowered Algeria to qualify for the 1994 finals in USA.
Nigeria beat Algeria 3-0 to lift her first-ever Africa Cup of Nations title on home soil in 1980, but the Fennecs avenged by beating the Eagles 1-0 to also nick their first African title, on home soil, 10 years later.
Cameroon stopped Nigeria from reaching the 1990 FIFA World Cup finals, winning 1-0 in Yaounde in a group contest even though Nigeria won the home leg 2-0 in Ibadan.
In Yaounde, only weeks after the death of Samuel Okwaraji, Nigeria needed a draw to shove aside the Lions, but lost 1-0.
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