The qualifiers for the FIFA 2018 world cup is over The draws for the group stage has been conducted and every participating team now knows their opponents for the group stage encounters.
Our darling super eagles will lock horns with la Albiceleste of Argentina, the Valtreni of Croatia and 'giant killers' Iceland and many super eagles fans are very optimistic about the chances of the national team. The super eagles did beat a 'messi-less' Argentina side 4-2 in an international friendly last November and boast an impressive record against european opposition at the world cup (P11 W5 D1 L5). But many who will be watching the quadrennial summer tournament for the first time in about six months time would be keen to know how well the super eagles had fared in the past FIFA world cups they've played in.
So we analyse every of the previous 5 World cup tournaments the super eagles has participated in...
U.S.A 1994 WORLD CUP
The super eagles eventually reached the world cup for the first time in 1994 managed by Dutch coach Clemens Westerhof. After winning the African Cup of Nations earlier that year, great things were expected of the super eagles at the world's global showpiece event. In April that year they were ranked 5th in the FIFA world ranking, the highest ever achieved by an african national football team. They were drawn in the same group as Bulgaria, Argentina and Greece. Nigeria beat Bulgaria 3-0with goals from Rashidi Yekini( who had finished as top scorer at the African Nations Cup earlier that year), Daniel Amokachi and Emmanuel Amunike. They lost to Maradona-inspired Argentina 1-2 and beat Greece 2-0 as Finidi George and Daniel Amokachi provided the firepower.
The super eagles finished top of their group to set up a last 16 tie with the Italians.
In a feisty encounter with the Italians, Emmanuel Amunike gave Nigeria the lead after 25 minutes of play and kept the lead until the 88th minute when Roberto Baggio broke Nigerian's heart to equalize for the 10-man Italians who had seen Gianfranco Zola dismissed in he 75th minute. Baggio went on to score another in extra time to eliminate the super eagles from the tournament. The 1994 world cup remains Nigeria's best outing at the global showpiece event.
FRANCE 1998 WORLD CUP
Nigeria returned to the biggest football competition on the planet with great optimism after winning gold at the Atalanta '96 olympics. The super eagles were then managed by Serb coach Bora Milutinovic nicknamed the miracle worker. The super eagles were drawn in group D alondside spain, Bulgaria and paraguay. In their opening fixture, the super eagles twice came from behind to defeat the europeans (Spain) 3-2 with goals from Adepoju, Sunday Oliseh and an own goal from Zubizareta.
Nigeria defeated Bulgaria in their second group game 1-0 with Victor Ikpeba scoring the solitary goal. They lost their final group game to paraguay 3-1.
They faced Denmark in the last 16 fixture in front of a 77000 packed stadium but got thrashed 4-1 by Michael Laudrup and co.
SOUTH KOREA AND JAPAN 2002 WORLD CUP
Nigeria qualified for the world cup for the third time in a row after beating West african rivals Ghana 3-0 to secure their place as the 5th african side to qualify after Cameroon, senegal, south africa and Tunisia had secured their places.
Arguably Nigeria's world cup appearance till date, the african giants were drawn in group F along with powerhouses Sweden, Argentina and England.
Nigeria started the game against Argentina strongly but eventually lost 1-0 to the Albiceleste by a Gabriel Batistuta goal. They would eventually go on to lose 2-1 to Sweden which is followed by 0-0 draw with England and bowed out in the first round.
SOUTH AFRICA 2010 WORLD CUP
After failing to qualify for the 2006 world cup, it would have been shame for the giants of africa not to be at the first ever world cup on african soil. Nigeria however made it to the 2010 world cup thanks to the heroics of Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Obafemi Martins in their final qualifying game against the chipolopo of Zambia at the expense of Tunisia.
Drawn to face Argentina(again!!!), Greece and south korea, it seems a relatively easy group but after 1-0 loss to the south americans and a 2-1 loss to Greece where Kaita was sent off for Nigeria, the super eagles hopes of reaching the second round were left hanging by a thread. They had to beat the koreans convincingly and hope Argentina beat Greece but the game ended in a dissapointing 2-2 draw.
The highlight of the tournament howbeit, a negative one, was the incredible open goal miss by Yakubu Aiyegbeni which was dubbed the greatest miss in world cup history.
BRAZIL 2014 WORLD CUP
Nigeria qualified for their fifth world cup in 2014 and were drawn in the same group as Argentina (really??), Iran and newcomers Bosnia and Herzegovina. After a goaless draw with Iran in the opening game, Nigeria beat Bosnia !-0 thanks to goal from Peter Odemwingie. A lionell Messi- inspired Argentina side ran 3-2 winners over Nigeria with Ahmed Musa grabbing a brace. Nigeria qualified as runners up behind Argentina and faced France in the last 16 only to lose 2-0.
There you have it!
Tell me about your opinion on the super eagles chances at next summers world cup hosted by Russia.