Nigeria’s Super Eagles have finally arrived in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, after their flight from South Africa was forced to make an emergency landing in Luanda, Angola, on Saturday due to a cracked window, SaharaReporters has learnt.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) confirmed the team’s safe arrival in a post on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Sunday morning, writing, “Update: The @NGSuperEagles have finally arrived Uyo after a delay in Luanda, Angola due to issues with the aircraft conveying them back home after the win over Lesotho. Now to get one over Benin! Yes. We can.”
This was also confirmed by a sports journalist, Adepoju Tobi, who wrote, “Super Eagles Update: After the delay in Angola, the Super Eagles are back in Uyo, Nigeria. ValueJet Airline sent another aircraft to Angola. Benin Republic and Gernot Rohr MUST fall.”
The players and officials had been stranded in Angola for several hours after the ValueJet aircraft conveying them from South Africa developed a fault midair. This forced the pilot to divert for an emergency landing.
A top NFF official, who was among the team’s delegation, had earlier told SaharaReporters that the situation was “a close call that could have been worse,” confirming that the aircraft’s windows had developed a visible crack during the flight.
“The pilot noticed a crack in one of the windows and immediately decided to make an emergency landing. Everyone was tense, but we thank God it didn’t escalate,” the source had said.
The Super Eagles were returning from Polokwane, South Africa, where they defeated Lesotho 2–1 in a must-win World Cup qualifying match.
The victory, courtesy of goals from captain William Troost-Ekong and striker Akor Adams, kept Nigeria’s hopes of qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup alive.
Following Saturday’s results, Benin Republic sits atop Group C with 17 points, while South Africa and Nigeria trail with 15 and 14 points respectively.
The final round of fixtures on Tuesday will determine which of the three nations secures the group’s sole automatic qualification ticket
