Izuchukwu Okosi
The Super Eagles’ delegation to Sunday’s 2026 FIFA World Cup African qualification series Day 2 encounter against the Warriors of Zimbabwe will arrive in Rwanda – Zimbabwe’s adopted home – in the early hours of Saturday.
The delegation of players and officials will travel to East Africa aboard a chartered aircraft that will depart from the Victor Attah International Airport by midnight, and touch down in Kigali at dawn, before a two-hour road trip to Butare, the city where the match venue (Huye Stadium) is located.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe 20,000 -capacity Huye Stadium has an artificial turf, but the Eagles have voiced a collective decision not to be bothered about the playing turf as they seek the maximum three points.
After a 1-1 draw with Lesotho’s Crocodiles in Uyo on Thursday evening, Coach Jose Peseiro and his charges quietly committed to facing the remaining nine matches of the qualification series with a much stronger mentality, with victory in each match the only option.
With Rwanda on the high-altitude plane, it was decided that the Eagles fly into the country, have their official training session and play the match before the unfamiliar climate began to take its toll.
Zimbabwe’s Warriors, who clashed with Rwanda’s Amavubi in their own Day 1 fixture – which ended scoreless – have been training on the artificial turf of the Huye Stadium since arriving in Rwanda at the weekend, and faced the home team on the same turf.
The Eagles and the Warriors will clash at the Huye Stadium from 3pm Rwanda time (1pm Nigeria). Victory on Sunday will take the Super Eagles to four points with the campaign one-fifth of the way gone.
Souleiman Ahmed Djama from Djibouti will be the referee, to be assisted by his countrymen Liban Abdoulrazack Ahmed (assistant referee 1), Rachid Waiss Bouraleh (assistant referee 2) and Mohamed Diraneh Guedi (fourth official).
Yohannes Ghirmai Ghebregziabher from Eritrea will be in the role of referee assessor and Raphael Lyson Humba from Malawi will be the match commissioner.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
