The Nigeria Football Federation deserves to be praised for organizing quality friendly matches for the Super Eagles recently.
The federation put together a four-nation tournament, named Unity Cup, where the national team participated along with India, Jamaica and Zimbabwe.
The Super Eagles clinched the trophy for the fourth time after defeating Zimbabwe and Jamaica in London, which ensured the team’s upward movement on the Federation of International Football Federation’s rankings.
The NFF has been heavily criticized in recent times for the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico, Canada and the United States of America after losing to Democratic Republic of Congo in one of the playoffs on penalties.
The Super Eagles thus, continued in their obscurity, having missed the previous edition of the tournament in Qatar.
Notwithstanding the unfortunate results, the NFF put together two quality friendlies against Poland and fifth-placed Portugal on FIFA rankings.
Nigeria played out a 2-2 draw with Robert Lewandowski’s Poland before losing 2-1 to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal which afforded coach Eric Chelle an opportunity to access new players.
The friendlies will no doubt prepare the team for their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying game in September this year.
Super Eagles’ supporters can look forward to better days from the NFF under the leadership of Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau.
