Nigeria’s men’s senior basketball national team, D’Tigers will next be in action on August 27th, when they tango neighbours Cameroon at the start of round two in the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, Sports247 reports.
While D’Tigers’ coach, David Fizdale and his wards are still fresh from their 3/3 surge in the last stage of round two in the qualifiers for Qatar 2027, they will have to quickly dust off the celebrations and head back to the drawing board.
The Nigerian players and their coach have just over a month to prepare for the next epic stage of the qualifiers, in which they will face South Sudan as well as Cabo Verde home and away in Group E, while their victims this past weekend in Luanda, Angola – Tunisia and Guinea – will face similar fixtures.
D’Tigers will go out for their opening game against Cameroon on August 27 and face South Sudan the following day, then conclude their three-game quest against Cabo Verde on August 30th; while Guinea will tackle South Sudan and Tunisia then tango Cabo Verde on the opening day.
While D’Tigers have already scaled the threat of Guinea and Tunisia, they will seek to maintain their dominance over Cameroon, who they have played four times and won three of those encounters, while also emerging victorious in two previous fixtures against South Sudan.
They will, however, have to be wary of Cabo Verde, who Nigeria has tangoed six times and D’Tigers have just a single victory from those encounters, thereby making their final group game quite dicey, in contrast with favourable odds they have against Cameroon and South Sudan.
Incidentally, D’Tigers stand fifth among all six teams heading into the second round group last stage games of the 2027 FIBA World Cup qualification race – behind South Sudan, Guinea and Cameroon on nine points each, level with Tunisia on eight and ahead of Cape Verde on seven.
Sports247 gathered further that all points and results from the first phase are carried over to the second round for home and away fixtures, but all teams that faced each other in the opening stage will not lock horns during the next installment – which means Nigeria will not play against Tunisia and Guinea.
