Mikel Obi Vows Nigeria Will Be At Next Year’s World Cup

Skipper Mikel Obi has vowed that the Super Eagles will qualify for next year’s World Cup after they came close to achieving this in Cameroon last night. Had Nigeria beaten Cameroon for the second time in three days, the Super Eagles would have booked their flight to Russia 2018.

However, the 1-1 draw in Yaounde has now meant they will have to wait for the result of today’s other group game between hosts Algeria and Zambia in Constantine to know how many more points they need to rack up to reach their sixth World Cup.

Nigeria top their qualifying group with 10 points from four matches.

Zambia are second on four points and face one-point Algeria tonight in their fourth game.

African champions Cameroon are third in the standings with three points and have effectively been eliminated from the qualifiers.

Former Chelsea star Mikel said the Eagles are delighted to have bagged a point in Cameroon and hope to seal qualification soon.

“The World Cup is a big tournament. I have played in one before and to get to a second one will be amazing. My aim is to lead this good, young team to the next World Cup,” said the experienced midfielder.

“We were almost there today (yesterday). If we had got the three points, we would have finished the job. “We are still very happy with the point. “With one or two points we will be there.”

Nigeria host Zambia in their next game of the series on October 7 in Uyo.