Eagles can become first African team to reach World Cup semi-final, says Musa

Ahmed Musa says the Super Eagles are determined to become the first African team to make the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup.

Musa caught the eye at the 2014 World Cup, scoring a brace in Nigeria’s 3-2 loss to Argentina.

The Leicester City player says he hopes to be one of those lucky enough to make Gernot Rohr’s final World Cup list.

“We want to make the quarter-finals and even the semis. Why not?” Musa told FIFA.com.

“It doesn’t matter who we come up against; we’ll be giving it our best shot at the World Cup. We’ll be trying our hardest in every match, no matter the opposition.

“We need to set our sights high. Nigeria want to do more than just get past the group phase. I hope I get selected. The World Cup is a very important event for any player.

“We’re delighted to be making the trip to Russia. We were in a tough group with Algeria, Cameroon, and Zambia. It wasn’t easy to finish first, but we’re delighted to have reached our objective.

“We got off to a good start with a win away to Zambia, and then we beat Algeria at home. That gave us confidence and we pushed on from that to qualify.

“We thought, to begin with, that it would all come down to the last match against Algeria. We didn’t think we’d have qualified already, bearing in mind the standard of the group.

“When we realised we weren’t going to make it to the Africa Cup of Nations [last year], we decided that we were going to fight for the people of Nigeria.”