{"id":76691,"date":"2025-10-14T20:05:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=76691"},"modified":"2025-10-14T20:05:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T20:05:44","slug":"nigeria-crushes-benin-4-0-to-reach-2026-world-cup-play-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/10\/14\/nigeria-crushes-benin-4-0-to-reach-2026-world-cup-play-offs\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria Crushes Benin 4-0 to Reach 2026 World Cup Play-offs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles have qualified for the CAF play-offs of the 2026 FIFA World Cup after thrashing Benin Republic 4-0 at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo.<\/p>\n<p>Victor Osimhen netted a stunning hat-trick, while Akor Adams added the fourth goal as the Eagles dominated from start to finish.<\/p>\n<p>Samuel Chukwueze shone with two assists, while captain Wilfred Ndidi anchored a solid midfield display.<\/p>\n<p>Osimhen opened scoring in the 3rd minute, struck again in the 38th, and completed his treble in the 51st minute before Adams sealed victory in the 72nd.<\/p>\n<p>The result places Nigeria among the four best runners-up in the CAF qualifiers, earning them a play-off spot against Gabon in Morocco this November, a crucial step toward securing a 2026 World Cup ticket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Samuel Adeola Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles have qualified for the CAF play-offs of the 2026 FIFA World Cup after thrashing Benin Republic 4-0 at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo. Victor Osimhen netted a stunning hat-trick, while Akor Adams added the fourth goal as the Eagles dominated from start to finish. Samuel Chukwueze shone with two [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":76692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-76691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76693,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76691\/revisions\/76693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}