BY KUNLE SOLAJA. 

As the Super Eagles begin their quest for a seventh World Cup appearance this Friday in Lagos, Sports Village Square is bringing out seven points of interest as Nigeria host Liberia at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

  1. The Nigeria versus Liberia duel will be Nigeria's 105th World Cup qualifying match since the first one played against Ghana's Black Stars in Accra on 28 August 1960. The 105 World Cup qualifying matches is the second highest in Africa after Morocco's 116. In contrast, this match will be Liberia's 59th World Cup qualifying match.
  • Till date, no African side has raked up as many World Cup qualifying victories as Nigeria which has overall record of 58 wins in 105 matches. They are followed by Morocco's 53 victories in 116 matches.
  • The duel with Liberia will be the third time that the Super Eagles will be playing at the Teslim Balogun Stadium. In the previous two matches, Nigeria won 2-1 against Sierra Leone in a friendly match on 9 February 2011 and  3-0 against Lesotho in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match on 30 March 2021.
  • With 30 players in the Super Eagles' armoury, this is the largest assembly of Nigerian foreign-based footballers.
  • Save for their last encounter which technically is categorized as exhibition match owing to the featuring of president George Weah, Nigeria and Liberia have met 17 times, the Super Eagles winning 10 and drawing four times. The remaining three encounters were won by Liberia.
  • If fielded, the match with Liberia will be Ahmed Musa's 99th international match, just one game for him to enter the famed FIFA Century Club.
  • If Nigeria wins, Coach Gernot Rohr will be moving closer to equalling the number of victories Nigeria raked up under Dutchman, Clemens Westerhof under whose the Super Eagles had 27 wins. Till date, Nigeria under Rohr have won 22 matches.