Africa Football Discussion Thread || Current discussion: African teams at Qatar.

[KingsDen]

I also believe that FIFA is obliged to take some action regarding these lasers. They are dangerous to the eye, in fact, they are weapons.

And here is the face of Salah before he took the penalty

Lasers were banned in football to the best of my knowledge but implementation is very poor especially in Africa that's why they somehow found their way into the field. Because the game between Senegal and Egypt was aired same time as Nigeria and Ghana, i tuned in after the Nigerian game and was surprised to see laser lights from people all over the field, can be very distracting to play with.

When it got to Mo' Salah's turn to take the penalty, the Senegalese supporters with the lasers really focused it all on him, he could actually blame that for why he missed the kick...but unfortunately even if FIFA decides to take action,  i don't think it will still take away the world cup qualifications from Senegal, perhaps they may just face some sanctions...but Senegal is a team i am looking forward to see play in the world cup.

I have seen many reactions by Africans during the World Cup qualifications. I have seen many accusation of racism among the blacks. This is what I am not getting clearly. Fifa should look into these incidents critically let not football divide the Africans the more. Football is a symbol of unity and not of division. Using a laser light on the opponent players is not acceptable. Invading the football pitch to destroy and cause a stampede that claimed the live of a medical doctor is not accept. Fifa shout threat African cases with justice.

[JeromeTash]

There were some pretty ugly scenes after the Senegal and Egypt match yesterday. I saw a short clip on Twitter showing Senegal fans storming onto the pitch trying to attack Salah. He also had cups and drinks thrown at him as he was leaving the pitch after the defeat. I didn't watch the match, so I don't know the reasons behind it all. Is it just due to a rivalry between the two nations or did Salah do or say anything to kind of justify such (unfair) treatment? He doesn't seem like the type to do something like that to me.   

This and the video clip of Nigerian fans storming the pitch after getting dropped out by Ghana. It was a real low from the teams you would expect to be among the most powerful in Africa.

Apparently, in some post I read, Senegal fans were giving Egypt a taste of their own Medicine. It's widely side that Egypt fans are known to use lasers to taunt opponent players

I think CAF has to get serious and start imposing serious bans and fines.

[dothebeats]

Senegal qualifying to the World Cup is extremely ecstatic, but was immediately overshadowed by the poor reception of Senegalese people to their opponents. It could have been a moment of glory for all Africans but nah, the fans have been extremely disrespectful and are even pointing lasers against players whom they don't really like. Anyway, the game is entirely anticlimactic, with Egypt not able to convert penalty shots into something that could have helped them qualify for the world cup.

[snipie]

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Still confused with home and away goal with African world cup qualifier where they still adopt it, I see most country active participant on each world cup edition as Nigeria have missing this time world cup after eliminating from Ghana, first leg both countries play draw and Ghana as playing home match, but on 2nd leg away to Nigeria, Ghana success get draw with score 1-1 and as the winner for this match because created away goal and make Ghana will play on world cup, but different when UEFA Champion League match they not counted again with home and away goals created.

Africa isn't underdeveloped for no reason.. Everything there is applied late and the rules might change at the last minute whenever they want to push a team against another. Anyway, this rule is known by everyone and those who fall back should improve themselves especially Algeria, they dropped a lot comparing to the previous year..
I am still worried that qualified African teams won't do anything special in Qatar and will be an easy opponent for the others, hope I am wrong..

[wildan88]

Senegal qualifying to the World Cup is extremely ecstatic, but was immediately overshadowed by the poor reception of Senegalese people to their opponents. It could have been a moment of glory for all Africans but nah, the fans have been extremely disrespectful and are even pointing lasers against players whom they don't really like. Anyway, the game is entirely anticlimactic, with Egypt not able to convert penalty shots into something that could have helped them qualify for the world cup.

It is actually somewhat strange that in the qualification of this continent African superpowers such as Egypt and Senegal meet in the Knock out phase. I don't know whether that was drawn by lot, but now countries from Africa are also coming through that are clearly less than Egypt. By the way, geographically, Egypt wouldn't be in Africa at all, would it? If you really take the continent of Africa, Egypt is not one of them. Or I didn't pay attention early in Geography. Is there still a door for Egypt that they can still go to the World Cup, just like with the Nations League?

[Woodie]

That Senegal Egypt rivalry needs to continue some day because as things stand Senegal is the superior team in the 3 games I have seen them meet... the last time these guys met in the Africa cup the Senegalese came out the Victor's and in the world cup meet they shared the wins but the deadlock had to be decided by penalties which saw Egypt crash out to gift Senegal a free ticket to the world Cup. But can they go the extra mile...yes they can and they should deliver as they have a good team.

[Crytpo-Guy]

Senegal qualifying to the World Cup is extremely ecstatic, but was immediately overshadowed by the poor reception of Senegalese people to their opponents. It could have been a moment of glory for all Africans but nah, the fans have been extremely disrespectful and are even pointing lasers against players whom they don't really like. Anyway, the game is entirely anticlimactic, with Egypt not able to convert penalty shots into something that could have helped them qualify for the world cup.

It is actually somewhat strange that in the qualification of this continent African superpowers such as Egypt and Senegal meet in the Knock out phase. I don't know whether that was drawn by lot, but now countries from Africa are also coming through that are clearly less than Egypt. By the way, geographically, Egypt wouldn't be in Africa at all, would it? If you really take the continent of Africa, Egypt is not one of them. Or I didn't pay attention early in Geography. Is there still a door for Egypt that they can still go to the World Cup, just like with the Nations League?

thou to me Senegal deserves the qualification, there pattern of play is phenomenal they always dominate the game when playing against Egypt, they are so focused when they are playing. When it comes to football game the Senegalese are one of the best teams in Africa, they really deserve the win.thou the fans reactions was bad pointing laser's at the Egyptian team wasn't a good one they should take caution Incase of next time.

[Smartvirus]

Apparently, some might argue that the laser was pointed at all the players during the game and upon penalty shoots and as such, it some how leveled the platform but I can te you that, eye sites differs and so also would a players judgment of what is before him. Having any form of constraints that might offset fair play on football isn't and shouldn't be compromised with. Fifa have singled out a few fans and made good examples off them, same should be done to these fans. Let them get to understand that, you don't get to act just anyhow you want to while viewing a game. It's important that there are no excuses and blames to a win.

[Maidak]

Apparently, some might argue that the laser was pointed at all the players during the game and upon penalty shoots and as such, it some how leveled the platform but I can te you that, eye sites differs and so also would a players judgment of what is before him. Having any form of constraints that might offset fair play on football isn't and shouldn't be compromised with. Fifa have singled out a few fans and made good examples off them, same should be done to these fans. Let them get to understand that, you don't get to act just anyhow you want to while viewing a game. It's important that there are no excuses and blames to a win.

Over the years of watching football, I have seen some crazy things happening on the field. We have seen fans throw food, plastic bottle,s, and even explosives at the players on the field. And these things should be taken care of otherwise there could be serious consequences in the future. And it is okay to be passionate about the game but I can say for sure that a player is not more passionate than the fans. And it's not easy to achieve something in the field which the fans will never understand.

[LUCKMCFLY]

Nigeria can not be predictable at times, I do not even trust then at home because they can make mistakes when people are expecting then to play good.

You are right. The Super Eagles know how to disappoint when you expect them to perform. If not that the second leg should be a simple match, and an easy walkover. Another thing I do not like is what I heard that President Buhari has promised to be at the Abuja stadium to watch the encounter. That was how Buhari spoke with the team during AFCON in the match with Tunisia and Nigeria lost that match. I want that omen not to repeat again in the second round match. Austin Egueavon should up his game and make necessary tactical changes wherever it is possible.

The performance of the African teams is so laggy in fact. In their competitions, you will never know how the game will end even if top teams like Nigeria is playing vs an unknown country. It is classic there. Things are more obvious in Conmebol although they switch places from time to time except Argentina and Brazil. Same goes for Asian teams. In UEFA qualifiers, you have usually a clear favourite with a surprise from time to time. In Africa, surprise from a half time to another and from a match to another. I will not be surprised if the outcome of the next games will be totally the opposite.

It is true, very true mate, great intervention and what you say is very right, as for the South American tie, things are clearer when it comes to Brazil and Argentina, clearly their dominions are already predetermined since the origin of the world championship, at Bearing this in mind, I see that the nations in Africa usually give surprises at different levels of the games, as I said before, one of the benchmarks of African football is Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, because sometimes they have an explosive football that does not they tend to maintain but at certain times when they play, I think that if they manage their explosive style from the beginning, the countries that go to the World Cup will be a power without a doubt. I was really surprised by something, the amount of lasers on Salah's face... and the way it all went wrong for Egypt.

[Alisha-k]

Nigeria’s biggest problem in that match was the European born players. Most of them were born in other countries, they do not know what football means to us. They do not understand how there is insecurity, poverty and whatnot in the country. They did not understand that in all these things. It's football that gives us joy.
There was no urgency to win the match, they were all playing sluggishly.

Our coach wasn’t tactical enough. His plan failed from the start of the second half. His introduction of Shegu Abdullahi made it obvious that he had no clue anymore.
If you are having a hard time dealing with the loss, please stay calm.
It’s not even close to how terrible the state of the nation is. Maybe we need to focus on the real problems.

I strongly disagree, the biggest problem of the Nigeria's team is not the players really. The players in the national team can compete with any team in the world. I would rather say the biggest problem of Nigeria is the ability to choose and assemble their team. They tend to lack a lot in the technical aspects of the game and coach Eguavoen was pretty much tactical woe, his choice of players and timing to make substitute were very wrong and that cost the team their chance to rep Africa in the world's cup

I knew all along that what those guys will play is "beautiful nonsense". Imagine the sloppy passes they were giving. One moment when you think they want to make something coordinated, someone's son will just come and shoot nonsense. Osimehen tried so hard to do something, but it seemed most of the other players where more bothered about showing off dribbling skills than giving a good pass
  I think the coach also had a hand in their failure cause I see no reason why he has to introduce ighalo and Musa at the 70 something minutes when he would have brought them in earlier. Well, let's just relax, I don't think we would have survived had we crossed to Qatar with a poor performance as this

[Mr.right85]

It's the one thing that is eminent in most Nigerian players and that is, to how off in projection of themselves by being very fancy with the ball. These guys tend to forget that there is a high stake game at play, the one they are unto and all they suddenly care about is to shine.

It's no surprise that they've played several games and have still got no experience to winning. They care more about our shining everyone else on the pitch and no part of a nation and team uplifting seems embedded on their minds. The next you would see on social media is some lost apology that became expired even before it was given.

[ropyu1978]

Even though Senegal qualified for the Qatar world cup but I am not at all happy, because of the behavior of their fans who are very unnatural, almost every match Egyptian players are rained with leser, in my personal opinion FIFA should punish the Senegal national team, if only the Egyptian national team players didn't Senegalese fans rained leser on them, surely the end result would be different, but I respect the Egyptian fans in the first leg, Egyptian fans never made a noise, let alone bombarded Senegalese players with leser, I think FIFA should review the penalty shootout between Senegal and Egypt .

[dataispower]

Congratulations to the teams that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup at Qater.
But the performance from the Nigeria team was not that bad but a bit below good, news I heard after the game was that, the fans was angry and got the stadium in Nigeria messed up.
News is that that stadium has been banned.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

It's the one thing that is eminent in most Nigerian players and that is, to how off in projection of themselves by being very fancy with the ball. These guys tend to forget that there is a high stake game at play, the one they are unto and all they suddenly care about is to shine.

Well I took sometime off expressing my anger on this thread, it is very sadden that Nigeria will not be represented at the world cup. It takes the fun out of it, Ghana going there would never exceed the group stage. We only have two representative which are senagal and Cameroon, the rest are just extras. Don't go blaming the players, for a start anybody that received injury form international football in Nigeria don't get treated by Nigeria instead they get sent over to their respective club and lets not forget they aren't getting much benefits from playing for Nigeria.

They know their club football is what pays the bills so they'll always want to protect themselves to avoid injuries which will result to them missing the reminder of the season. This lost blame should be channeled to the manager, what was he thinking testing players in a very important match as this. I'm happy he has been sacked. Congratulations the others that qualifed.

[snipie]

Even though Senegal qualified for the Qatar world cup but I am not at all happy, because of the behavior of their fans who are very unnatural, almost every match Egyptian players are rained with leser, in my personal opinion FIFA should punish the Senegal national team, if only the Egyptian national team players didn't Senegalese fans rained leser on them, surely the end result would be different, but I respect the Egyptian fans in the first leg, Egyptian fans never made a noise, let alone bombarded Senegalese players with leser, I think FIFA should review the penalty shootout between Senegal and Egypt .

I didn't hear any official complaints yet from Egypt for the incidents that happened in the game but Algeria apparently started it with a request to redo the match since the referees interfered with the result especially for the first goal.
I will be shocked if corrupt CAF will make a move in favor of Algeria or also Egypt. Even FIFA won't interfere, they have enough headaches from it..

[CryptoPanda]

I also believe that FIFA is obliged to take some action regarding these lasers. They are dangerous to the eye, in fact, they are weapons.

And here is the face of Salah before he took the penalty

Lasers were banned in football to the best of my knowledge but implementation is very poor especially in Africa that's why they somehow found their way into the field. Because the game between Senegal and Egypt was aired same time as Nigeria and Ghana, i tuned in after the Nigerian game and was surprised to see laser lights from people all over the field, can be very distracting to play with.

When it got to Mo' Salah's turn to take the penalty, the Senegalese supporters with the lasers really focused it all on him, he could actually blame that for why he missed the kick...but unfortunately even if FIFA decides to take action,  i don't think it will still take away the world cup qualifications from Senegal, perhaps they may just face some sanctions...but Senegal is a team i am looking forward to see play in the world cup.

North African countries especially Egypt started using these Laser in Africa football to unsettle their opponents and obviously this was a pay back time for them. Truthfully, it is not the first time this is happening in Africa football and in as much as fans will want to give excuse, this do not justify leading to the penalty being missed by Salah. Worse case is he could have walk to the referee instead of taking the kick but as a top player he thought he could score but failed. The same happened in Ghana vs Nigeria match, there was an uproar right after the match, some fans ran into the pitch to attack the players. Football is a very emotional sport but we as fans and as human beings also need to keep our feelings in check. No one like losing, not the fans....not the players. When we finally understand the players aren't mannequins or robots that should be tossed out once they lose a game,  we can end this shenanigans happening in stadiums

[Jasad]

I think qualifier have been ended and now let us predicting which one country from African as possibility chance could going on knock out stage or have possibility trough to semi final on world cup. I think from 5 countries favorite as Senegal only as country on World Cup have potential lead to quarter final, but depending when drawing begin will have heavy group or easy, usually not any african country participant on world cup can talk more until lead to semifinal, always europe country dominance on world cup edition.

[SatoPrincess]

It's the one thing that is eminent in most Nigerian players and that is, to how off in projection of themselves by being very fancy with the ball. These guys tend to forget that there is a high stake game at play, the one they are unto and all they suddenly care about is to shine.

It's no surprise that they've played several games and have still got no experience to winning. They care more about our shining everyone else on the pitch and no part of a nation and team uplifting seems embedded on their minds. The next you would see on social media is some lost apology that became expired even before it was given.

It is very sad we lost that match I had so much hope we would beat them at home. We were the favorites to win Ghana The problem of Super eagles has been bad management. Politics have meddled into sports if not for polictical reasons the so called manager has no place leading the super eagles in the qualifiers. I would have been happy if we played well and qualified. Ghana has a good team Nigeria should be a much better side.

[Leo]

A lot of people are complaining about Senegal fans using laser, it seems like most of you guys forgot that Egypt also used it in the first leg of the qualifier, although it's illegal to use it, and some folks are calling for rematch, quite funny though, I'm happy Senegal qualified, Sadio Mane especially, and Senegal has a lot of top players playing in big teams and they play good football, in my opinion they are the only team among the African nations who will exceed probably to the Semi finals