Two matches, but it’s fix-or-die for Eguavoen and Osimhen

Two matches offer just six points in all football competitions, and it is not any different in this case this weekend in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.

But it will be more than those points for the Super Eagles when they take on Benin Republic’s Cheetahs in Uyo on Friday and Rwanda’s Amavubi in Kigali on Tuesday.

By now, Nigerians are used to occasional below-average performances by the Super Eagles, and some of them have even decided to keep their hearts somewhere far from the team’s games.

It is all about retaining their sanity, because the team which has all it takes to succeed at all times in terms of personnel and material resources often times under-perform.

This year, the Super Eagles had raised hopes with the qualification for the final match of the 2023 AFCON in Abidjan, even as their path was not as smooth as expected.

But a 1-2 loss to hosts Côte d’Ivorie was to present a deflation, with several consequences staying unresolved until the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers continued in June.

There the Eagles, who could only muster two draws from two games earlier in November against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, failed to raise their game to take charge of their group.

Another home draw with South Africa and an away loss to “hosts” Benin Republic in Abidjan could only compound their woes for a chain of actions and reactions.

The rest is now history, and particularly mind-boggling is the fact that Finidi George who was appointed to take charge after the earlier departure of Jose Peseiro is no longer there.

Also, there was the outburst by Victor Osimhen, as well as the non-inclusion and non-availability of several players in the matches George took charge of.

Then there was a certain Bruno Labbadia who got appointed