•Game kicks off 8.00 p.m

THE Super Eagles will go into Wednesday’s game against the Brave Warriors of Namibia knowing that a win may take them to the last round of the African qualifying series.

Nigeria is on eight points and sit atop the Group F table ahead of Malawi, which has six points. Namibia is on the third spot with four points, while Kenya props the rear on two points.

The Super Eagles will qualify for the final round of the African series with a win in Windhoek and Malawi fail to beat Kenya in the other game.

Mathematically, Namibia can still win the Group F ticket by beating Nigeria and the other game ends in a draw. That will mean they must defeat Kenya in their last game and hope Malawi hold Nigeria in Calabar.

All that projections would amount to nothing if the Eagles beat Namibia Wednesday. The Eagles spent their fifth day in Windhoek Tuesday evening perfecting strategies for the game, which also serves as the team’s final preparatory session before the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in Brazil.

Six days ago, the travelling Nigerian troupe got the better of their Kenyan hosts in Nairobi, thanks to a late goal by Ahmed Musa. The Eagles are looking forward to a bigger scoreline as they have been emphasising accurate shooting and deadly poaching.

Wednesday’s tie at the artificial turf of the Sam Nujoma Stadium in quiet Windhoek somewhat serves as the return of a 1-0 defeat the Brave Warriors suffered in Calabar a year ago, at the start of the series.

In that match, it took a late goal by Ikechukwu Uche for Nigeria to scoop the maximum points.

In fact, Nigeria’s four goals in this qualifying series have come late in their games. Midfielder, Gabriel Reuben scored late in Malawi but there was still time for the Flames to equalise, and against Kenya in Calabar, the match was three minutes into added time before Nnamdi Oduamadi saved the African champions’ blushes with an equaliser.

Since coming into the saddle 20 months ago, Keshi has not lost a competitive match with Nigeria. The only two losses, narrow indeed, were the 2-3 defeat by Egypt in a friendly in Dubai on April 12, 2012 and a 0-1 loss to Peru in an international friendly in Lima the

following month. The matches were prosecuted by home-based players.

Speaking through the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) Media Officer, Ademola Olajire, Keshi said, “I am confident that we will achieve our objective of earning three points here. We have been training hard here since arriving on Friday and I believe the boys are itching to go into action.

“We have eight points now and can qualify with a game to spare, but we must work very hard as I don’t think the Namibians are a push-over,” Keshi said.

The Brave Warriors have been hit by the exit of their Swedish Coach, Roger Palmgren, 48 hours to the clash with the African champions. Football Association officials are nonplussed but have immediately put his assistants in charge.

Malawi’s Flames host Kenya’s Harambee Stars at the Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre same day.

After today’s match, the Super Eagles will fly to Johannesburg tomorrow afternoon to connect a South African Airways flight to Sao Paulo, from where they will travel to Belo Horizonte for their first match of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup tournament, against Tahiti on Monday.

Olajire revealed that NFF Vice President, Mike Umeh led a delegation of some top officials into Windhoek yesterday.

According to Olajire, in the delegation were also the Chairman of Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Adamu Gumba, two members of the House Committee on Sports, Chairman of NFF Technical Committee, Chris Green, NFF General Secretary, Musa Amadu and some top secretariat staff.

He added that a delegation of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, led by the President General, Rafiu Oladipo, also arrived in Windhoek.