Nigeria's national football team, nicknamed the Super Eagles, has participated in the FIFA World Cup on six occasions. The FIFA World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body.
The tournament consists of two parts: the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently takes place over the three years preceding the Finals, determines which teams qualify for the Finals.
The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month.
From 1994 to 2014, Nigeria’s Super Eagles made five World Cup appearances. Depending on your demography or when you started watching the Super Eagles, some of Nigeria’s past World Cup matches still elicit excitement, while some no doubt resurrect a melancholic feeling of what would have been if the outcomes of those duels had been different.
Nigeria has reached the FIFA World Cup on six occasions, the first being in 1994 where they reached the second round.
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Nigeria's World Cup Appearances
- 1994 - Round of 16
- 1998 - Round of 16
- 2002 - Group Stage
- 2010 - Group Stage
- 2014 - Round of 16
- 2018 - Group Stage
Of the five World Cup appearances, Nigeria have played a total of 18 matches, making it to the Round of 16 on three occasions, and are yet to progress past this stage.
1994 World Cup (USA)
Being Nigeria’s first World Cup match ever, many were eager to see what cloth the African champions were cut out from. Having won the continental crown six months earlier in Tunisia, it was time to face the world.
Nigeria’s first World Cup match was against Bulgaria. Not perturbed by the conflicting time difference with USA, Nigerians milled around their television sets and that of their neighbours in the wee hours of the morning to watch this game.
Daniel Amokachi picked out Chidi Nwanu who was in an open channel and the latter looked up to cutback for Yekini who glided home the opener after twenty minutes with his left foot.
One soon became two as Yekini turned provider with a probing pass into the box which the Bulgarian defenders made a mince of, but Amokachi had the best reactionary instinct, pushing the ball past the onrushing goalkeeper Borislav Mikhailov, and on his turn, found the angle to score the second.
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Amunike’s glancing header met Finidi George’s incisive cross to head Nigeria into a 3-0 lead, and the rout was complete.
That was a game many who watched then still drool over, and applaud an assemblage of talented players who didn’t tremble in trepidation on taking the world.
Nigeria had gone in front in the 25th minute through Emmanuel Amunike whom a rebound fell to, and he skillfully guided it past Italy’s goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani.
Just two minutes to regulation time, Roberto Mussi had overlapped into attack, skipped past a Nigerian defender and slid through a square pass for Roberto Baggio to drill home the equalizer into the bottom right corner beyond Peter Rufai.
Although Baggio got his brace from the spot, Nigeria had a good chance of drawing level, with Michael Emenalo finding Yekini, but his first touch let him down and he couldn’t get the connection needed to finish off.
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The Super Eagles 1994 squad. Photo credit: FIFA.com
1998 World Cup (France)
Doubt there were many who thought Nigeria would ever beat Spain after the Super Eagles were drawn against the Europeans when the draws were made.
Facing a Spanish side that had the likes of Raul, Fernando Hierro and Luis Enrique, Nigeria stunned them in their opening game, handing the Europeans a 3-2 defeat.
Spain had the stars and it showed when they took the lead in the 21st minute through a deflected strike from Hierro’s free-kick. However, Nigeria clawed their way back seven minutes later through the “headmaster” Mutiu Adepoju heading in a corner.
It looked like normal service was restored when Raul left Mobi Oparaku trailing to flick his side ahead two minutes after the restart. Nigeria kept going though and Andoni Zubizarreta’s error saw Garba Lawal equalize 2-2.
However, the moment of the game that will remain indelible in the minds of Nigerian football fans, was Sunday Oliseh’s thunderous strike from long range to put Nigeria 3-2 up.
It was Nigeria’s first match at that World Cup, but the celebration was so effusive that it seemed they had won the tournament itself.
2002 World Cup (Korea/Japan)
Super Eagles of Nigeria qualified for her third consecutive World Cup in Korea/Japan 2002 edging out Ghana and George Opong Weah’s Liberia in African qualifying group.
Nigeria’s second game brought an attacking flare to it when Julius Agahowa grabbed the first goal for Nigeria against Sweden with his acrobatic display goal celebration. The Sweds then had the final laugh with 2 goals from Henrick Larsson to give them a 2-1 triumph over Nigeria to send the Super Eagles out of the tournament.
With nothing but pride to play for in her final group match, Nigeria played a 0-0 draw with political colonial masters, England.
That game between the Super Eagles and the Three Lions of England at the 2002 World Cup was one of Nigeria’s best World Cup matches ever. A dead rubber match with nothing at stake for Nigeria, it was a game premised more on pride for the Super Eagles than for England who knew a point would see them through to the next stage.
Although the game ended in a 0-0 draw, it was far from a dour contest, with both teams having a real go at winning the game, and really, the game could have gone either way.
Emile Heskey and David Beckham came close to finding the net, only to be repelled by Enyeama, with Austin Jay Jay Okocha testing David Seaman at the other end.
With Benedict Akwuegbu and James Obiorah leading the lines in attack, it was the latter who came the closest to scoring for Nigeria, and at the other end, Enyeama announced himself to the world after making a remarkable safe to deny Paul Scholes’ venomous long range strike, getting his right arm to it and pushing it out of the post.
Afterwards, Michael Owen came close and Akwuegbu almost found the net, if not that he shot directly at Seaman.
It was a very open game that was entertaining, and the squad players who featured that day, gave a good account of themselves.
Nigeria’s Jay Jay Okocha skips past Emile Heskey in their 2002 World Cup match. Photo Credit: Getty Images
2010 World Cup (South Africa)
Nigeria failed to qualify for Germany 2006 FIFA World as the team lost qualification to the Palancas Negras of Angola on head to head rule but eventually returned to the world football mundial in 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Nigeria was drawn in the same group with Argentina, Greece and South Korea. Argentina once again made a hard fought 1-0 triumph over Nigeria in the first game with early goal from Gabriel Heintz.
Further 2-1 loss to Greece in Nigeria’s second game left the side with no chance than to beat South Korea in her last group game to become the first and only team to qualify for the round of 16 with 3 points.
But failed to materialize after playing a 2-2 draw against South Korea in their last group game to bow out of the World Cup in a dramatic fashion. Kalu Uche puts Nigeria ahead against South Korea before the Koreans came from behind to take a 2-1 lead.
After the 2010 World Cup, the President suspended the national teams before he rescinded his action.
2014 World Cup (Brazil)
10 years after appearing at her first World Cup as African Champions in USA 1994, the Super Eagles of Nigeria will be making her 5th World Cup appearance in Brazil 2014 as African champions for the first time since 1994.
Of the four clashes between the Super Eagles and Argentina at the World Cup, the 2014 clash at Estadio Beira-Rio Porto Alegre was one of Nigeria’s best performances against the Albiceleste.
Argentina with the maverick Lionel Messi conducting the orchestra for them, cut Nigeria open inside three minutes, but minutes later Ahmed Musa responded with a curler that found the top right corner to level things for Nigeria.
Musa continued where he left off, and a brilliant one-two with Emmanuel Emenike saw him played through on goal making no mistakes finding the bottom corner.
Argentina did find the winner through Marcos Rojo, but Nigeria could have also found an equalizer if John Obi Mikel had clinically taken the chance that he got, and if Osaze Odemwingie’s ambitious effort had beaten Sergio Romero.
Of the last three games before that, Nigeria had only scored one goal against Argentina, but found themselves scoring two in a game.
It is hoped that the team will be able to surpass her previous best result of round of 16 when the games kick start in Brazil under Coach Stephen Keshi.
2018 World Cup (Russia)
Nigeria's World Cup campaign ended in disappointing fashion a week ago today, when they were defeated by Argentina in St Petersburg.
The Super Eagles had been given a preparation unparalleled in their history of participation at the tournament, raising expectations given they reached the Round of 16 in Brazil four years ago with way less support, but they failed to match their pre-finals projections.
Regardless, the Super Eagles broke records in their sixth appearance at a World Cup finals.
Nigeria were always going to bank on their perfect record against World Cup debutants when they faced Iceland after an underwhelming performance in the defeat by Croatia.
They recorded their best performance of Russia 2018 in defeating Iceland 2-0, with two goals from Ahmed Musa.
Nigeria had played Argentina four times in FIFA World Cup finals, losing all four, but they went into the fixture in St Petersburg with high hopes given their 4-2 victory in a friendly in Krasnodar, Russia, in November 2017.
As in the previous four encounters, however, the Super Eagles lost by a one-goal margin. The latest defeat -- conceding the decisive goal with just four minutes of regulation time to play -- was particularly devastating as it cost the team a spot in the Round of 16
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