By Korede James
Wilfred Ndidi has said he and his Super Eagles teammates are to blame for their poor 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.
After four matches in qualifying Group C, the Super Eagles are fifth on three points, four points adrift of leaders Rwanda.
The AFCON 2023 runners-up have failed to win any of their four fixtures so far, drawing three and losing one.
“We want to win but I feel we put ourselves in this situation because we didn’t do well in the previous games,” Ndidi said on ‘Off The Pitch’, a forum hosted by Kenneth Omeruo on X and anchored by former Super Eagles media officer Toyin Ibitoye on Monday.
“But I feel the qualifying games for the AFCON and qualifying for the AFCON has brought a kind of confidence in the team to actually push towards the World Cup qualifiers.
“We know we are in a difficult and critical situation and we cannot let it slip. If some players miss this one (2026 World Cup) there’s no guarantee they will be in the next one (2030 World Cup).
“The last World Cup I went was in 2018 but there was no opportunity to go for the Qatar 2022. Some of the players who were in 2018 are not in the national team anymore.”
The Leicester City midfielder added: “It is in our heads already that if we don’t get this right we will have to start from the scratch for the next one.
“We’ve been reminding ourselves about the whole situation, every player wants to play at the World Cup and we cannot just let this slip away, we can’t accept that.
“We didn’t do well in the previous games. Going forward there’s no excuse, we have to show our qualities and get the points as much as we can.”
The Super Eagles will hope to get their campaign back on track when the qualifiers resume in March, when they will face Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
