{"id":28374,"date":"2022-03-22T20:21:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T20:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=28374"},"modified":"2022-03-22T20:10:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T20:10:27","slug":"1998-world-cup-super-eagles-fly-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/1998-world-cup-super-eagles-fly-again","title":{"rendered":"1998 World Cup: Super Eagles fly, again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>There was an irony in the qualification phase of the 1998 World Cup. Czech Republic, ranked third in the world, failed to qualify, yet Nigeria, who had fallen from fifth position before USA \u201894, to 74th and lowest, made it to France.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Super Eagles were thumped 4-1 by the Netherlands in a pre-World Cup friendly and were easily the underdogs against Spain, who were Pele\u2019s favourite team for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

But Bora Milutinovi\u0107\u2019s men proved that sometimes rankings are just on paper.<\/p>\n

Actually, it was political intervention that had derailed Nigerian football. In 1996, SaniAbacha had barred the team from defending their Afcon trophy in South Africa, resulting in Caf banning them from the 1998 edition.<\/p>\n

Now in France, some of whom were part of the 1996 Olympic winning team, wanted to prove a point. They did; against a star-studded Spain.<\/p>\n

Fernando Hierro put Spain ahead on 21 minutes. Mutiu Adepoju levelled in the 24th. Just after half-time, Raul restored Spain\u2019s lead. But a howler by the lethargic Andoni Zubizarreta led to another equaliser in the 73rd and killed Spain\u2019s confidence.<\/p>\n

Five minutes later, Sunday Oliseh struck a beautiful volley that sealed it for the Super Eagles.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. There was an irony in the qualification phase of the 1998 World Cup. Czech Republic, ranked third in the world, failed to qualify, yet Nigeria, who had fallen from fifth position before USA \u201894, to 74th and lowest, made it to France. Moreover, the Super Eagles were thumped 4-1 by the Netherlands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":28373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-28374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\n1998 World Cup: Super Eagles fly, again - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There was an irony in the qualification phase of the 1998 World Cup. 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