After a topsy-turvy qualifying campaign, which saw them lose out on a direct ticket to the World Cup, Nigeria are two wins away from rescuing themselves.
The first of those games is the final of the CAF playoffs, which comes up on Sunday in Rabat and goes through the Democratic Republic of Congo, who eliminated Cameroon hours after the Super Eagles had removed Gabon.
The Nigerians drew with Lesotho, Zimbabwe and South Africa and lost to Benin Republic in the early stages of the series. Their campaign was kept alive by South Africa being almost nearly as poor as the Eagles and then committing an administrative gaffe that cost them three boardroom points.
As they get ready to face the DRC on Sunday, coach Eric Sekou Chelle is refusing to dwell on what happened in the past but is choosing to go with his own clean slate
"I don't want to talk about what happened before," he said when asked about how those previous results have impacted his team and what he has done to turn things around.
"Since I come here, we try to work, we try to create an identity. The most important for our team is to create an identity, and the identity is how you play in defence and how you play in offence. Now these guys are improving technically and they understand what I want to do with them."
That improvement has shown up in the results, as they rallied towards the end to finish with three wins and one draw from their last four games, scoring eight goals and allowing just two.
Their four goals against Gabon on Thursday takes their tally to a remarkable 12 goals for and three against. In their previous six games, that tally was seven goals for and six against. This turnaround is exactly the sort of resurgent wave that the Eagles need to ride to the World Cup.
Here are a few things they can do to keep that up.
Protect Osimhen and get him on the ball
This almost goes without saying. With Osimhen in the team, good things tend to happen for Nigeria. The Super Eagles have not lost a game in which he has scored or provided an assist, especially not in qualifiers.
And it is not just a numbers thing, or about just his scoring - tt is his industry, his determination, the clear and persistent danger he presents for defenders, and his sheer will to win.
This makes him not just tough for defenders, but an accountability warrior for his own teammates.
After his miss against Gabon, the forward told ESPN he owned up, apologized to his teammates and promised to make amends. And he did. It is the same high standards he holds himself to that he also holds his teammates to when they put up sub-par performances.
That is the difference between a Nigeria team with Osimhen and one without. At 26, this is his last chance to make it to the World Cup in his prime years. By the time the next tournament rolls around in 2030, he would be on the wrong side of 30 and probably on the downward curve.
Osimhen had multiple opportunities in the first half to put the game to bed, but was denied by a combination of good goalkeeping and inexplicable misses. It is hard to see that happening two games in a row. His partnership with Akor Adams appears to be just what the doctor ordered for Nigeria.
Chelle's defensive decision with semi back
Sekou Chelle is in the unenviable position of having a big selection decision to make in defence. The quartet of Calvin Bassey, Benjamin Fredrick, Bright Osayi-Samuel and Zaidu Sanusi held the line superbly against Gabon, but for one error that let in Mario Lemina. And even that could have been prevented if Chidera Ejuke did his job.
Sekou Chelle admitted the error, but insisted it is part of the game and pointed to his defence being new to each other.
"This is football, if there is no little mistake, there is no goal. We scored four goals because they did little mistakes about position," he said.
"It was a new defence too with Bright, Benjamin, Calvin and Zaidu. They are playing well, I think the team was strong in defense, but we can still improve."
With Semi Ajayi returning from suspension and available for selection, Sekou Chelle now has a decision to make.
Does he install Ajayi back in the starting lineup, and if he does, who gets dropped? The smart money would be on Osayi-Samuel, who seems prone to at least one blooper per game. and shunt the youngster Fredricks to right back while Ajayi and Calvin man the centreback roles.
But the question is - if it ain't broke, why fix it? Benjamin Fredricks has been especially impressive since breaking into the squad and the starting lineup up and has earned his place. Ajayi may just have to wait his turn.
Tactical flexibility must continue
It is no secret that Chelle is a 4-4-2 diamond proponent, and for most of his previous games, it looked like that was a hill he was prepared to back. On Thursday, however, he proved against Gabon that he could be more than flexible.
His team started with the diamond in the first half and dominated Gabon, but when the Panthers made adjustments and threw an extra body in midfield, so did Chelle, reverting to a flat 4-4-2 to counter, with the introduction of Moses Simon and Ejuke. And when that looked unsuccessful, he switched to a 4-3-3 before finishing the game with a 5-4-1 with the introduction of captain William Troost-Ekong to see out the score and keep Gabon from getting a sniff of goal
"Gabon played with the counter but we managed it well," he said.
"In the first half, we had many situations to score a a goal and in the second half, we changed the system, we scored a goal and everything was good, we just made a little mistake on our position and they scored a goal."
Chelle says he is looking for his team to improve when they play on Sunday: "We did lots of good things but bad things too. So we have to correct some things for the second game, but I am confident in my players and what they did that they will do better."
The same applies for the coach.