Nigeria, were on Tuesday, drawn in Group A alongside Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and either Sao Tome & Principe or Mauritius.
The event was conducted by CAF Director of Competitions Samson Adamu and African football icons – Lucas Radebe of South Africa and Solomon Kalou of Ivory Coast – at the SuperSport Studios in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The tournament, scheduled to be hosted by Cote d’Ivoire between June 23 and July 23, 2023, will first, see 48 teams slug it out in 12 groups of four teams each.
For the Super Eagles, the contest will be against Sierra Leone: a team who stunned them in a 4-4 draw at Benin City during the AFCON 2021 qualifiers, Guinea-Bissau: a Group D opponent at the recently-concluded AFCON in Cameroon, and one of Sao Tome & Principe or Mauritius.
As compared to the Super Eagles who are ranked 30th in the world and third in Africa, opponents Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau are the 108th and 115th-ranked teams in the world, based on the FIFA rankings released on March 31.
Sao Tome & Principe (189) and Mauritius (167) who both await the outcome of a disciplinary procedure as regards their preliminary qualifying game, could either be the fourth team in Group A.
The qualifying matches are expected to take place between June 2022 and March 2023, with the first two matchdays to be played in June 2022.
Here are some of the reactions that trailed the Super Eagles ‘easy draw’ on Tuesday.
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