Nigeria qualify for 2010 World Cup

  1. Posted on Monday 16 November 2009 - 10:35
    Murtala
    Image of Murtala
    Murtala Kamara Mohammed, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone
    Nigeria finally secured a spot for the 2010 World Cup after surviving a scare from Kenya thereby becoming the only qualifier for Group B to reach South Africa 2010. Their winning coincides with the country's conclusion of the Under-17 World Cup which FIFA described as successful despite earlier remarks.
    Yakubu_Nigeria
    "Its God's work,"former Arsenal striker Nwankwo Kanu said, while Yakubu Aiyegbeni, who scored the second goal according to This Day newspaper, praised the collective effort of his team mates in delivering the goods for the country.

    "I want to give praise to God and my fellow players for making this happen. It is a collective effort not just we, the goal scorers, but every player because without them we would not have been able to score on our own."

    On his part, John Obi Mikel, according to the report who perhaps played his best match for the Eagles since his national team debut at the 2006 Nations Cup finals in Egypt, said he was overwhelmed and very delighted to have been part of history. "We never gave up even though it appeared we had lost it when we drew against Tunisia in Abuja. We were determined to make Nigerians happy by being part of the World Cup," said Mikel, who can now join two of his Chelsea team mates, Didier Drogba and Michael Essien, in planning for South Africa 2010.

    Many Nigerians have been very skeptical about their country qualifying at the historic South Africa 2010 after their poor start. Saturday wining left football fans in the West African country celebrating.

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