When the Confederation of African Football ratified an expansion to the Africa Cup of Nations in July 2017, introducing eight more teams to the biennial competition, the dynamic of the qualifying program was always going to change.

As had been the case ahead of the European Championship in 2016, for which UEFA had instigated an increase from 16 to 24 teams, many of the continent's heavyweights cruised to the tournament with games to spare.

However, an overall decrease in drama among the bigger nations...

Exactly 39 years to the day on which Nigeria won their first ever African title, the current iteration underwhelmed in their final game of this Africa Cup of Nations qualifier series, despite recording a victory. 

In what has got to go down as perhaps their most uninspiring performance of the 2019 qualifying series, the Super Eagles ground out a 3-1 win over group whipping boys Seychelles on Friday night in Asaba. 


Odion Ighalo opened the scoring from the spot with a goal that took his...

Nigeria's Super Eagles have never been short of inspiration for international games, especially when playing at home, and Friday's 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Seychelles will be no different.  

Super Eagles fans, spoilt by the swashbuckling, winning fare served up by teams of yore, especially the famed Class of '94, have come to expect nothing but victory on home ground, and react poorly when disappointed.

The constant fear of fan backlash acts as fuel for the players...