{"id":15546,"date":"2026-11-12T01:31:43","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T01:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/taifa-stars-clashes-must-games-ex-intls-charge-eagles\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T01:31:43","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T01:31:43","slug":"taifa-stars-clashes-must-games-ex-intls-charge-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/12\/taifa-stars-clashes-must-games-ex-intls-charge-eagles\/","title":{"rendered":"Taifa Stars\u2019 clashes must-games, Ex-int\u2019ls charge Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Former<\/strong> Nigeria internationals Sylvanus Okpala and Abiodun Obafemi have urged the Super Eagles to treat their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Tanzania as must-win games.\n<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria host the Taifa Stars at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday, November 13, at 5pm, before the return in Zanzibar on Tuesday, November 17.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Super Eagles are second in Group L with three points from two games, after beating Madagascar 2-1 and losing 3-0 to Guinea-Bissau. Tanzania have already qualified as co-hosts, leaving only one ticket available from the group.\n<\/p>\n<p>Okpala, who was part of the Green Eagles squad that won the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations. He was also assistant coach to the late Stephen Keshi when the Super Eagles won the 2013 AFCON. He said the team had no room for error.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should know that for them to qualify, they have to play to win all the games now and hope that someone will lose the game,\u201d Okpala told our correspondent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they can win all their games, that means they must beat Guinea-Bissau, who beat them last time. It is tough, and it is crucial, but it is what they need to do.\u201d <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-also\">\n<header>Related News<\/header>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Obafemi was part of the Nigeria team that won gold at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and he called for caution and pointed to Nigeria\u2019s failure to reach the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThunder does not strike twice, but we have to be very careful. We know how we lost out in the World Cup, and we have to be very careful here so we do not miss out here.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing less than 100 per cent, so we can qualify for the AFCON and not experience a repeat,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Super Eagles now have a full camp in Uyo. 17 players trained on Tuesday, with the rest arriving later that day after flight delays on Monday, and all 24 invited players were in camp by Wednesday.\n<\/p>\n<p>The Taifa Stars, coached by Miguel Gamondi, arrived in Uyo on Tuesday morning and trained at the stadium\u2019s practice pitch that night.\n<\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Punch Newspapers &#8211; Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Nigeria internationals Sylvanus Okpala and Abiodun Obafemi have urged the Super Eagles to treat their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Tanzania as must-win games. Nigeria host the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}