Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, is confident Nigeria will qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup and even play up to the quarterfinals of the competition.
In an interview with FIFA.com, the German admitted that the Nigeria group is tough, but optimistic the Super Eagles will eventually make the cut for the mundial.
Rohr said: “We have three opponents in the group and have to respect all of them.
“Liberia are a team that can’t be underestimated as we saw when we beat them in a friendly.
“As for Cape Verde, they have players of Portuguese and Brazilian origin, and they can beat any team.
“Central African Republic are an unknown quantity for us, which makes it more difficult.
“I think the group is tough, but we believe in our capabilities.
“Given that we qualified from the group of death for Russia 2018, we’re confident we can make it this time as well.”
On what the fans of the Super Eagles should expect when the team eventually qualifies, the coach said the team would work hard to make it to the knockout stage.
Rohr said: “We’ll take it one step at a time.
“First we need to qualify, and if we do that, we’ll look at our group at the finals.
“We’ll try to progress to the knockout stage, which we got very close to two years ago.
“We have to work hard to achieve that.”
The coach said he’s also monitoring some fresh Nigeria players in Europe.
He said: “We’re in constant communication with the players, the technical staff, the trainers, the video analyst, and all the coaching staff.
“Every week we see the players and travel, sometimes, to meet them as well.
“Recently, I visited Kevin Akpoguma, who plays for Hoffenheim.
“He made the decision to play for Nigeria after representing Germany at youth level.
“I also keep in touch with Nigerian football officials, with whom I successfully negotiated a contract extension until Qatar 2022, on the condition that we qualify.
“It’s definitely been a unique period.”