Ex-Nigerian international, Seyi Olofinjana has urged the Super Eagles to target the quarter-finals at the 2018 FIFA World Cup The legend was speaking after coach Gernot Rohr led the West African side to the global showpiece after beating Zambia on Saturday.
The 2013 African champions became the first African team to qualify for Russia when beating Chipolopolo 1-0 in Uyo. “We’ve been to a few World Cups in recent years, and we need to be looking at progressing further – rather than crashing out in the early stages,” Olofinjana told BBC Sport. “I think the country should be looking at perhaps the quarter-finals.” Meanwhile, only three African teams have ever reached the last eight at a World Cup – Cameroon were the first to do so in 1990. They were followed by Senegal in 2002 while the Black Stars of Ghana missed a penalty and failed to become the first African team to make the semi-finals in 2010. Olofinjana also believes that Rohr can blend youth with experience in a side that made light work of a qualifying pool widely labelled the ‘Group of Death’.