Julius Okorie
Super Eagles June 10 opponents, Squirrels of Benin Republic, appear ready to play the spoilers should any opponent choose to treat them with kid gloves.
This much emerged, after the Squirrels, also known as the Cheetahs, shocked table toppers, Rwanda, at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny, on Thursday, grabbing a surprise lone goal victory.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe result means Benin and Rwanda are now tied with four points at the top of their group with three matches played.
The Amavubi of Rwanda had planned to earn a victory to consolidate at the top but the Squirrels had other plans recording the first win of their World Cup qualifying campaign.
The Cheetahs found their breakthrough in the 37th minute through Dodo Dokou, whose powerful strike made it into the corner of the net, beating Ntwari.
The Amavubi, also called Wasps of Rwanda, battled with intent to get back to the game in the second half but the Squirrels held on to the end of the match running away with maximum three points.
The Super Eagles, who have a date with Bafana Bafana of South Africa, Friday night, will afterwards jet out to Abidjan to face Benin Republic in Abidjan.
If statistics are however anything to go by, Squirrels are not expected to pose a problem for the Super Eagles.
Both sides have met a record 16 times in all competitions, including friendly matches with Nigeria winning 13 times, pulling a draw twice and losing just one game.
Benin Republic are seeking their first ever qualification for the FIFA World Cup.
The match against Super Eagles in Abidjan will however be a mixture of competition and nostalgic re-union as the Eagles will come face to face with their former coach, Genot Rohr, who is currently the coach of Squirrels of Benin.
Recall that Rohr managed the Super Eagles between 2016 and 2021. He led the Super Eagles to the FIFA World cup 2018 in Russia.
On 12 December 2021, he was sacked, despite qualifying for the 2021 Africa Nations Cup and final round of qualifying for the World Cup playoffs. Unfortunately the Eagles failed to scale through the playoffs losing two legged playoff against Black Stars of Ghana to miss the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
