By

Eniola Olatunji 

Amavubi of Rwanda on Monday made history beating the Nigerian Super Eagles for the first time in African football in a remarkable way 2-1 at the God’swill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo.

 

Nigerian Coach, Augustine Eguavoen had made eight changes from his usual list allowing key players off or putting them on the bench and Rwanda made two but the pathetic news was that the famous Rwandan victory did not qualify them for the AFCON finals.

 

Nigeria faced a Rwandan team that played as if there was no hope with Ihenacho getting the only strike on target at the last minute of the first half. On resumption of the 2nd half, Nigeria made two simultaneous changes in the 46th minute bringing Samuel Chukwueze for Ihenacho and Onyeka for Yusuf. Immediately, Onyeka connected Chukwueze for the opening goal in the 59th minute. 

 

Rwanda slapped two goals within three minutes on Nigeria, the highest conceded in the qualification series beating Maduka Okoye who last kept goal for Nigeria in June 2022 and replacing Stanley Nwabali who lost his father last Friday while he was in goal for Nigeria.

 

Overlapping Defender, Ange Mutsinzi got a pass from Kwizera before beating a careless Nigerian defence in the 72nd minute and in the same manner Innocent Nshuti scored the winning goal in a lone strike in the 75th minute.

 

The loss is worrisome to Nigerian football community as they wonder whether Augustine Eguavoen could qualify Nigeria for the world cup as Nigeria has outstanding world cup dates with Rwanda on 1st September 2025 in Uyo and on 17th March in Kigali. Nigeria is desperate for a world cup qualification.

 

The Cheetahs of Benin at the 11th June Stadium, Tripoli Libya forced the Mediterranean Knights to a barren draw to qualify on goals superiority over Rwanda and along with Nigeria in Group D. 

 

Here is the final table standing  of Group D:

Nation W D L GF GA GD Pt

Ngr 3 2 1 9 3 +6 11

Ben 2 2 2 7 7 0 8

Rwa 2 2 2 5 7 -2 8

Lib 1 1 4 3 7 -4 5

 

Rwanda has never defeated the Super Eagles in football until now. The two countries met 5 times with Nigeria making the only win and other 4 matches were drawn games. There were 4 goals scored three of which were from Nigeria. The two teams met thrice in AFCON games with Nigeria getting a win and the others were draws.

 

On 5th June 2005 Nigeria and Rwanda played 1-1 draw and the last time both met on 10th September 2024 in Kigali, it was a goalless draw. On 29th February 2012 it was goalless in an AFCON match in Kigali while Nigeria won at Uyo 2-0 in the 2nd leg of that AFCON encounter on 6th June 2012. In a CHAN match played on 15th January 2018 Nigeria played a goalless draw.

 

Nigerian ranked 36 by FIFA and Rwanda ranked 126, Nigeria had been unbeaten in their last four home games.

 

Libya and Benin Republic have played 5 games between them Libya won twice and Benin Republic won thrice no draw. A total 11 goals were scored between them, 5 from Libya and 6 from Benin.

 

On 9th October 2005 Benin beat Libya by a lone goal in a world cup qualifier and the last time both teams met in a competitive match on 10th September 2024 Benin won at Abidjan by 2-1. The three other matches were Friendly games where Benin won by a lone goal on 6th January 2010; Libya won the other two played on their home grounds on 9th February 2011 3-2 and on 18th November 2013 by a lone goal.

 

Libya has not scored more than two goals in a match in her last 5 matches so getting 4 goals to beat Benin we knew was ‘impossicant’. 

 

Benin has not scored more than 3 goals in a single match in her last 5 matches. The 3-0 home win against Rwanda on 11th October is her highest. She also lost 1-2 to Rwanda on 15th October and again lost 0-2 to Togo away on 25th October.

 

Africa now awaits the draws for the 35th African Cup of Nations AFCON scheduled for Morocco 21st December 2025 18th January 2026. Six cities will host the 24 teams.  Guinea was to host the 35th edition of AFCON but were stripped of the hosting rights because of their inadequacy of hosting preparations.

 

Ivory Coast won the last edition beating Nigeria on their home ground.