Will Nigeria hand South Africa World Cupt ticket? Eric Chelle delighted the Super Eagles 'are still alive' ahead of crucial outing against Benin

Nigeria laboured to a 2-1 win over Lesotho in their pool to take their points tally to 14 from the nine matches played. 

William Troost-Ekong and Akor Adams were on target for Nigeria, but a mistake by goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali allowed the Crocodiles to get a goal back through Hlompho Kalake to set up a tense finale.

But in the long run, Nigeria did enough to get the three points.

Coach Eric Chelle is now hoping to complete the job against the table leaders and, hopefully, get a chance to play in the World Cup.

”[On Friday] we are happy because we won the three points, we are still alive,” he told the media.

“I’m happy for my players, I want to congratulate them, for us we’ve been feeling the pressure since March, and when my players come to camp they feel the pressure because for Nigeria we need to go to the World Cup, so we have lots of pressure, so maybe other teams will have some pressure too.

“We need to have our fans behind us to put pressure on Benin. This is the World Cup qualifiers, so this game starts when they put their feet in our country. We need to do the job on the pitch," Chelle concluded.

A win for Nigeria against Benin might not be enough for them to grab an automatic World Cup slot.

The Super Eagles will have to rely on Rwanda to beat South Africa, who are second in Group C with 15 points.

But with three points in favour of Bafana Bafana coupled with Nigeria's win over the Cheetahs, it will push Mzansi to the top of the table and send them to the World Cup.

It promises to be an interesting and exciting finale since the final day will determine who will get Group C's slot.

The teams will also use the game to continue preparations for the 2025 AFCON to be played in Morocco from late December.