VIDEO SHOWS: NIGERIA AND BENIN TRAINING AHEAD OF WORLD CUP QUALIFIER / COMMENTS FROM NIGERIA COACH ERIC CHELLE & CAPTAIN WILLIAM TROOST-EKONG / COMMENTS FROM BENIN COACH GERNOT ROHR & CAPTAIN STEVE MOUNIE SHOWS: UYO, NIGERIA (OCTOBER 13, 2025) (REUTERS – Access all) 1. NIGERIA TRAINING UNDERWAY 2. PLAYERS DOING KEEPIE UPPIES 3. CAPTAIN WILLIAM TROOST-EKONG DOING KEEPIE UPPIES IN FRONT OF WINGER SAMUEL CHUKWUEZE 4. TROOST-EKONG DOING KEEPIE UPPIES 5. BALLS ON PITCH 6. PLAYERS GOING THROUGH PASSING & JOGGING DRILLS 7. COACH ERIC CHELLE WATCHING ON 8. FORWARD VICTOR OSIMHEN & WINGER ALEX IWOBI GOING THROUGH HEADING & PASSING DRILL 9. CHELLE & TROOST-EKONG SEATED DURING A PRESSER 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIA COACH, ERIC CHELLE, SAYING: “I am very happy. I am very excited. Sometimes I am a little nervous, but I like this pressure and tomorrow we will see.” 11. JOURNALISTS WITH PHONES 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NIGERIA CAPTAIN, WILLIAM TROOST-EKONG, SAYING: “All the boys are really focused on putting on the best game possibly tomorrow. Playing against Benin is not easy. There's no guarantee. Course we are playing against a coach that knows this team very well. Worked with (us) for 5 years, so, there’s so many factors and things that if you think you spend so much time thinking about all of that it's going to be distractions of what we have to do. So, we focus on ourselves like the coach said.” 13. BENIN PLAYERS JOGGING DURING TRAINING 14. PLAYERS WARMING UP 15. VARIOUS OF PLAYERS PASSING BALL AMONGST EACH OTHER 16. BENIN COACH GERNOT ROHR & CAPTAIN STEVE MOUNIE SEATED AT PRESS CONFERENCE WITH ROHR RESPONDING TO QUESTION 17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BENIN COACH, GERNOT ROHR, SAYING: “We can do it, and we are the only team from the three (Benin, South Africa and Nigeria) who still can hope to have our destiny in our hands. That's why I think we have a good position even if it would be a surprise to win here.” 18. PHONE ON TRIPOD RECORDING PRESS CONFERENCE 19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BENIN CAPTAIN, STEVE MOUNIE, SAYING: “We have our chance tomorrow, if we are the only team that beat Nigeria, I think we are the only team that can beat them again. So, hopefully we will take our chance tomorrow and get this qualification.” 20. ROHR WATCHING ON DURING TRAINING STORY: On Monday (October 13), Nigeria's Super Eagles and Benin's national football team intensified preparations ahead of their World Cup qualifier, with coaches and captains expressing cautious optimism during press briefings. Benin, who defeated Nigeria during the first leg of qualifiers, aim to replicate their success, and doing so would book them a ticket to a maiden World Cup. Nigeria coach Eric Chelle said he was eager yet slightly nervous ahead of the match. Even victory may not be enough for the Super Eagles, as South Africa could also qualify with a positive result of their own at home to Rwanda. Benin's coach, Gernot Rohr, and captain Steve Mounie also expressed confidence ahead of the encounter. Benin sit top of Group C on 17 points, two clear of South Africa with Nigeria a further point behind. South Africa were stripped of three points during qualifying for fielding an ineligible player. FIFA's disciplinary committee had found South Africa guilty of playing midfielder Teboho Mokoena in a 2-0 home win over Lesotho in March when he should have sat out the qualifier after two cautions in previous Group C games. Lesotho were awarded a 3-0 victory. (Production: Seun Sanni, Angela Ukomadu)
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