Sani Zubairu, Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Head, Referees Unit, on Monday said the Super Eagles would break the country’s second round record by advancing to the quarterfinals in Russia 2018.
Nigeria beat Zambia 1-0 on Saturday to qualify for the World Cup. Nigeria also topped group b with 13 points while Zambia has seven points.
Algeria and Cameroon are the other countries in the group.
Zubairu made the prediction in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja while speaking on his expectations on the world cup.
He said that the present crops of Super Eagles players were not only promising but very determined to take over the reins of global football.
`Nigeria will definitely go beyond the stage they used to reach which is the second round this time.
“I am very optimistic of that because of youthfulness and focus of our boys, they will do wonders in Russia come 2018,’’ he said.
The NFF’s Referee Unit head explained that it was time to break that jinx, saying that all hands must be on deck.
According to him, I have the confidence in the ability of the players to reposition Nigeria’s world cup record for better.
Nigeria had not gone beyond the second round in all their world cup encounters starting from U.S’94 to Brazil 2014.
The Clemence Westerhof-led Super Eagles were edged out of the World Cup in the United States of America in 1994 in the second round by Italy.
France ended Nigeria’s dream of soaring to the quarter-finals with 2-0 in the Brazil 2014 World Cup.