Chippa United captain Stanley Nwabali is currently in camp with the Nigeria national team as they gear up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup playoffs taking place in Rabat, Morocco. The Super Eagles are set to face Gabon in the semifinal later today, with the winner advancing to Sunday’s final to meet either Cameroon or DR Congo, Nigeriasoccernet.com reports.
The mini-tournament offers Nigeria another opportunity to secure a spot at the 2026 World Cup after narrowly missing out on automatic qualification.
Speaking ahead of the decisive clash, Nwabali emphasized the importance of making the most of this second chance. He noted that the team is fully focused on the task at hand and determined to deliver a strong performance.
“We feel it’s a real second chance for us coming into these World Cup qualifiers,” he said.
“Talking about our game against Benin, I felt like we passed maybe one, two, or three games without picking up a lot of points we wanted. But towards the end of the World Cup qualifiers, we started getting ourselves familiar with how the team is going to play and shape how we are going to build. But I feel like these playoffs are also going to be good for the upcoming Afcon.”
Thursday’s high-stakes encounter at the Complexe Sportif Prince Heritier Moulay Al Hassan in Rabat, starting at 5 pm (Morocco is on the same time zone as Nigeria presently), will be the 10th confrontation between the senior men's national teams of Nigeria and Gabon, with Nigeria having won five of the previous nine matches, and three drawn.
By Oluwadamilola Olaleye