The Super Eagles of Nigeria have called off their planned friendly matches against Venezuela and Colombia in the United States to focus on their upcoming World Cup play-offs.
A source within the Nigeria Football Federation confirmed the decision to ESPN, explaining that the matches, earlier scheduled for November 14 and 18 in Houston and New York, would no longer hold.
The source said, “We had a clause in the contract for the games covering this eventuality, if we qualified for the playoffs. So we will not be going ahead with the matches any more.”
Nigeria sealed their place in the play-offs after a 4-0 win against Benin Republic last week. The one-legged play-offs will feature Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo DR, and Gabon, with only one team advancing to the intercontinental stage.
“Our goal is to concentrate on the playoffs now and qualify from Africa and then focus on the intercontinental playoffs,” the NFF official added.
The Super Eagles, ranked the highest among the four teams, are set to face Gabon in the semi-final, while Cameroon will battle Congo DR in the other tie. The winners will then meet in the final to decide Africa’s representative in the intercontinental play-offs.
