Nigeria suffered a shock 1-0 home defeat against Central African Republic in African qualifying for the 2022 World Cup on Thursday.
Substitute Karl Namnganda, who plays in the French fourth tier for Les Herbiers, managed to latch on to a hopeful long ball forward as it fell between two Super Eagles defenders to score in the 91st minute in.
It was Nigeria’s first loss at home in a World Cup qualifier since October 1981 when they lost 2-0 to Algeria in front of 80,000 fans in Lagos.
In the other Group C match Liberia may rue the poor state of their stadium in Monrovia after losing 2-1 in stoppage time against Cape Verde in neutral Ghana.
Van-Dave Harmon opened the scoring for Liberia deep into first-half stoppage time before Jamiro Monteiro, just on as a substitute, levelled matters seven minutes after the break.
Cape Verde snatched victory in the 92nd minute as another substitute, Garry Rodrigues, smashed in the winner from the edge of the area.
The results leave Nigeria top of Group C with six points from three matches, Central African Republic and Cape Verde both have four points with Liberia on three.
Nigeria have a chance for revenge on Sunday when they play CAR in Cameroon while on the same day Cape Verde host Liberia
CAR and Liberia are among the 11 countries, representing over a quarter of Africa’s teams in the second round, to be barred from playing at home because of poor infrastructure.
Sudan, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Mozambique were added to the eight countries that received bans for last month, with Niger having been removed from the list after being given the go-ahead to host games.
BBC
