Africa Football Discussion || Current Topic: Worldcup qualifiers - CAF.

[QueenVera]

Hakimi disappointed many people's faces yesterday when he lost that penalty shot. It was very painful to see him again destroy Morocco’s chance of equalising in the march, although I will say that Morocco were not just lucky in the game yesterday, because they ended up losing the game by a score of 0-2, and South Africa got their second goal after the red card given to Amrabat.

Seeing as almost all the favourite and strongest teams have been knocked out of the season, there should be a clearly unpredictable AFCON. If Nigeria are able to beat Angola in their game, all hope will be in Nigeria because it might be the only strong team left to participate, that is, if definitely they have the victory over Angola.

Apparently now I won’t predict any game about AFCON anymore because how this season AFCON is going to me is unpredictable, so the next game will be on Friday, which will be between Nigeria and Angola. I know everyone will focus on this game to see if definitely Nigeria will win the march, which I believe in them but can’t predict, and if definitely that happens, all hope will be on Nigeria to have the trophy.

Hakimi missing that Penalty, I won’t blame him one bit because the pressure while on the spot kick was so much on him that he couldn’t real convert that spot kick. And I would congratulate South Africa because they sincerely played Morocco and they also had luck on their side.

 This brings me to the big surprise of AFCON as it still remains one tournament that’s usually hard to predict as we see smaller nations or underdogs dumping out the big boys of the tournament. Now all eyes are on Super Eagles match on Friday because they’re one of the 2-3 big guns still in the competition. The super eagles will need to go past Angola amd then I think the fans will have more confidence on the winning the trophy and it’s very possible especially if they keep up the determination and improvement level they used to play against Cameroon then they can get something off this match.

[Pesona1]

Seeing as almost all the favourite and strongest teams have been knocked out of the season, there should be a clearly unpredictable AFCON. If Nigeria are able to beat Angola in their game, all hope will be in Nigeria because it might be the only strong team left to participate, that is, if definitely they have the victory over Angola.

Compared to the countries that are currently in the quarterfinals, of course Nigeria is a strong team, but you also shouldn't forget Ivory Coast which also contains good players at the moment, I think if you look at the performance of the two existing teams of course Nigeria will be able to overcome Angola may be easy, but still Nigeria must be aware of the surprises that Angola might give later in the match, In terms of player quality, Nigeria is of course much better so this is profitable for Nigeria, besides that, as long as the African Cup is played from the group phase to the quarter-finals, I haven't seen Angola get a strong team at all and I think Angola journey to the quarter-finals is too easy compared to Nigeria.
I personally predict that in the final maybe we will see Nigeria and Ivory Coast meet.

[Jessie2121]

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles. Another problem is our goalkeeper who was injured in our last game against Cameroon and I pray by tomorrow we'd hear a positive news, because I honestly don't want Uzoho to be in that goalpost 😁.

[uchegod-21]

Seeing as almost all the favourite and strongest teams have been knocked out of the season, there should be a clearly unpredictable AFCON. If Nigeria are able to beat Angola in their game, all hope will be in Nigeria because it might be the only strong team left to participate, that is, if definitely they have the victory over Angola.

Compared to the countries that are currently in the quarterfinals, of course Nigeria is a strong team, but you also shouldn't forget Ivory Coast which also contains good players at the moment, I think if you look at the performance of the two existing teams of course Nigeria will be able to overcome Angola may be easy, but still Nigeria must be aware of the surprises that Angola might give later in the match, In terms of player quality, Nigeria is of course much better so this is profitable for Nigeria, besides that, as long as the African Cup is played from the group phase to the quarter-finals, I haven't seen Angola get a strong team at all and I think Angola journey to the quarter-finals is too easy compared to Nigeria.
I personally predict that in the final maybe we will see Nigeria and Ivory Coast meet.

In the recent ranking of FIFA will understand that the best countries in Africa that are at the top of the FIFA ranking have all exited the ongoing African Nations Cup. This is a very surprising thing to the African continent and also an indication that Africa has really grown above what they used to be in the past. The first indication was the success of some African countries in the world cup such as Morocco and Cameroon and others who did well by beating top countries of the world. Nigeria is obviously among the favourites to win this cup.

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles. Another problem is our goalkeeper who was injured in our last game against Cameroon and I pray by tomorrow we'd hear a positive news, because I honestly don't want Uzoho to be in that goalpost 😁.

It is expected that anything that is doing extremely well will be checked for dope. It is not a league so those players have not been together with the confederation of African football authority so they need to be checked. If you are a players are being checked a lot it means that they have quality.

[KTChampions]

As a result, the quarterfinal pairings turned out to be as random as possible:

Nigeria - Angola                  1.69 - 3.53 - 5.19

Congo - Guinea                   2.35 - 2.84 - 3.38

Mali - Ivory coast                3.68 - 2.88 - 2.21

Cape Verde - South Africa    2.69 - 2.86 - 2.84

We literally have one favorite, and the rest of the teams have a ~40% chance of winning at best. I think it makes sense to bet on a draw in all games except the first, the team, exhausted in the 1/8 finals, is unlikely to take much risk in games with equal opponents, especially when there are two steps left to the title. It might even be worth betting on the exact score 0-0 and 1-1.

[Wiwo]

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles. Another problem is our goalkeeper who was injured in our last game against Cameroon and I pray by tomorrow we'd hear a positive news because I honestly don't want Uzoho to be in that goalpost 😁.

Well this is a sad one for the Super Eagles because losing two key players is not what the Nigeria team can afford right now,  and to be sincere with you,  anything that makes the Nigeria team to perform lesser in the tonight's match,  it will have a huge negative impact on the team overall performance for the remaining days of the tournament,  this is very important and since this guys have been performing near average lately,  it is advisable to keep that steady pest if not there may slide out completely.

I thought they had gone through all possible drug tests before the start of this league,  am saddened to hear this that the two most active front-liners are off the team tonight.

[QueenVera]

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles. Another problem is our goalkeeper who was injured in our last game against Cameroon and I pray by tomorrow we'd hear a positive news because I honestly don't want Uzoho to be in that goalpost 😁.

Well this is a sad one for the Super Eagles because losing two key players is not what the Nigeria team can afford right now,  and to be sincere with you,  anything that makes the Nigeria team to perform lesser in the tonight's match,  it will have a huge negative impact on the team overall performance for the remaining days of the tournament,  this is very important and since this guys have been performing near average lately,  it is advisable to keep that steady pest if not there may slide out completely.

I thought they had gone through all possible drug tests before the start of this league,  am saddened to hear this that the two most active front-liners are off the team tonight.

Well we can't just conclude that the drug test was a plot by CAF to kick Nigeria out of the competition, they are the organisers of the tournament and they have every right to conduct such test in a case  where the suspect the Nigerian players, same thing happened with Paul Pogba at Juventus, so does it mean that the Serie A football body plotted that to deprive Juventus of one of their star player? My answer is NO. Well luckily for the Nigerian players, they were drug free and that's a good news to the team.

 However, too bad they might be without their goalie against Angola on friday. Uzoho is an important player for the Super Eagles and things coul turn out bad for them if he isn't fit to start and his replacement is not very good. Angola is a team that's not to be toiled with, they could be very dangerous and they already proved it by getting to this stage of the tournament.

[Alpha Marine]

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles.

Dope test during a tournament is a normal thing. Random dope tests are carried out on sports people all the time. You don't expect the players to be told that there's going to be a dope test before it's carried out.
Word Anti Doping Agency (WADA) in cooperation with the organizers of the competition usually carry out dope tests. There are matches where Messi and other football stars have been pulled aside after a game for a dope test.
So CAF is in no way trying to make things more difficult for Nigeria, they're just doing their jobs and making sure everybody stays in line.

Nigeria is going to have a very tough test against Angola. The 5 odds given to Angola should not deceive anybody. It's going to be a very difficult match. Angola is a good team too.

[iBaba]

If Ivory Coast played the way they played against Senegal going forward in this tournament then they would go very far.
Ivory Coast where a better side than Senegal yesterday. The fact that they won in penalties doesn't mean they were lucky. They worked really hard. The problem was, that they couldn't break Senegal's defense because they didn't have the attack for that and because of how good Senegal set up.
Senegal is a very good team, so for Ivory Coast to play draw with them in normal time and extra time shows how hard they had to work.

If Ivory Coast plays that way against a country like Nigeria then they stand a big chance of winning if they would be able to make use of their chances.

You are right. What I should have said is that they tried really because Ivory Coast had the good defense and even the midfield was not as bad but what I've realised was lacking on that football day was that they had no strong attack that would make the goals for them. They didn't have that goal machine to make things happen for them. They had opportunities where they where making corners and free kicks but there was not that finisher in the 18 yard.

Now South Africa will be meeting Cape Verde at the quarter finals after winning against Morocco in what I thought was going to be a vise versa.

I thought Hakimi was going to pull out some great stunts in the first half but that didn't happen at the end of the first half it was a 0 - 0 until second half was resumed and behold South Africa was able to make there first goal at 57 minutes while Hakimi got opportunity to score an equalizer in the penalty kick but still messed it up and at the end of the day, South Africa scored an extra goal making them two goals ahead.

[Onyeeze]

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles. Another problem is our goalkeeper who was injured in our last game against Cameroon and I pray by tomorrow we'd hear a positive news because I honestly don't want Uzoho to be in that goalpost 😁.

Well this is a sad one for the Super Eagles because losing two key players is not what the Nigeria team can afford right now,  and to be sincere with you,  anything that makes the Nigeria team to perform lesser in the tonight's match,  it will have a huge negative impact on the team overall performance for the remaining days of the tournament,  this is very important and since this guys have been performing near average lately,  it is advisable to keep that steady pest if not there may slide out completely.

I thought they had gone through all possible drug tests before the start of this league,  am saddened to hear this that the two most active front-liners are off the team tonight.

Don't you know that assuming their was a positive in Victor Osimhen system other nigeria team would have undergo same tests because Cefn would have assuming that all nigeria teams are playing or performing with influence of drugs, and that woul have tarnish the image of nigeria team even victor Osimhen for the club, over to the match between Nigeria and Angola, Angola performance is very encouraging because I have noticed that nigeria wining matches is by the grace and when looking at their performance you can see that they have not score a goal that is like excellent but Angola team score very nice goals,  so it seems like Angola will defeat nigeria because of their method game and they do strike from far distance in which nigeria team don't strike for long distance

[Pokapoka124]

The Morocco - South Africa match was an eventful one. Bookmakers didn’t give South Africa a chance to win the game and like most people I was expecting Morocco to walk over South Africa but that was not been the case. It seems the underdogs are doing better than the favorites in the tournament. There is so much uncertainty in the AFCON, we never know how a game is going to turn out.

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles.

It was not a movement. It’s normal for players to do drug test, some fans are insinuating that the drug testing was done because of Victor Osimhen’s performance in the match against Cameroon. I don’t think CAF is trying to sabotage the Super Eagles. Let’s remain calm, we shouldn’t let this distract us from our goal, we have an important match coming up and we have to be in the best shape mentally and physically.

[Hyphen(-)]

As a result, the quarterfinal pairings turned out to be as random as possible:

Nigeria - Angola                  1.69 - 3.53 - 5.19

Congo - Guinea                   2.35 - 2.84 - 3.38

Mali - Ivory coast                3.68 - 2.88 - 2.21

Cape Verde - South Africa    2.69 - 2.86 - 2.84

We literally have one favorite, and the rest of the teams have a ~40% chance of winning at best. I think it makes sense to bet on a draw in all games except the first, the team, exhausted in the 1/8 finals, is unlikely to take much risk in games with equal opponents, especially when there are two steps left to the title. It might even be worth betting on the exact score 0-0 and 1-1.

According to the odds from the betting platforms, Nigeria is the only team with fewer odds, which makes them the favorites in this round of eight. But we have seen how the competition has been so far; many teams we expected to have been in this stage have been eliminated, and only a few make it to this stage, which shows that anything can happen even though experience will take over hard work in these stages of the competition.

AFCON this year is interesting to watch. Many countries have stepped up their performance to prove to the world that there will be no separate teams or countries that will be ruling African football. This is a good sign of development in African football.

I am hoping that the Nigerian Super Eagles will be able to make it the semi-finals by defeating Angola, because the Angola players have already received so many gifts from different places just to encourage them to beat the Super Eagles of Nigeria, but I am sure the Super Eagles are also making all the basic preparations for the match, nevertheless, lets wait and see what the match result brings.

[emrecemsan]

~snip~

By the way isn't this offside line drawn wrong or am I just missing something? It looks like the Moroccan player's arm was taken into account.  

~snip~

Ain't the arm a part of the body? As long as football is concerned and the use of VAR is valid, the Moroccan player is offside and well consider the fact that this ain't just the group stages anymore where leniency could be upheld.
The AFCON has gotten more interesting than before and betting now is riskier for those who have waited till this moment to start betting.

The winner of AFCON must have proven beyond reasonable doubt that they deserved it and am hoping the super Eagles get there to the finals and win possibly, without much injuries in the team.

• Firstly the arm is also a part of the body yes but is it allowed to play with your arm? Isn't it handball?  
• Lastly I assume that you haven't watched the incident. Because it was the South African player who was evaluted if he was offside not the Moroccan player.

The South African player wasn't called offside after scoring the goal in the continuation of this incident by the way. This was why I was curious about if the offside line was drawn correctly.

[uchegod-21]

As a result, the quarterfinal pairings turned out to be as random as possible:

Nigeria - Angola                  1.69 - 3.53 - 5.19

Congo - Guinea                   2.35 - 2.84 - 3.38

Mali - Ivory coast                3.68 - 2.88 - 2.21

Cape Verde - South Africa    2.69 - 2.86 - 2.84

We literally have one favorite, and the rest of the teams have a ~40% chance of winning at best. I think it makes sense to bet on a draw in all games except the first, the team, exhausted in the 1/8 finals, is unlikely to take much risk in games with equal opponents, especially when there are two steps left to the title. It might even be worth betting on the exact score 0-0 and 1-1.

It is true that big names like Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal are out of the tournament. The biggest names still available are Nigeria and Ivory coast. Apart from the two exceptional names, we can still agree that Mali and South Africa is also a big name and likewise Angola and Congo.

With the way this Nations cup is going, it will be wrong to place Nigeria as unopposed because anything can actually happen. Naturally, Nigeria and Ivory are likely going to the finals but with the surprises from the group stage in this year AFCON, it is obvious that more drama may likely happen in this stage of the tournament. So, nothing is too sure to say.

[Zigabel]

Dope test during a tournament is a normal thing. Random dope tests are carried out on sports people all the time. You don't expect the players to be told that there's going to be a dope test before it's carried out.
Word Anti Doping Agency (WADA) in cooperation with the organizers of the competition usually carry out dope tests. There are matches where Messi and other football stars have been pulled aside after a game for a dope test.
So CAF is in no way trying to make things more difficult for Nigeria, they're just doing their jobs and making sure everybody stays in line.

Nigeria is going to have a very tough test against Angola. The 5 odds given to Angola should not deceive anybody. It's going to be a very difficult match. Angola is a good team too.

You are very correct to say they are doing their job but then it's still doesn't seem clear enough that at this time these key Nigerian players should be called up for dope testing, in the last game Senegal played against ivory coast, the ivorians were very active and had a very vibrant performance yet non of their players were called for a dope testing same applies to the Angola team, I'm of this opinion because it may see that the energetic performance of v. Osimhen in their las game against Cameroon led to the call for the testing, looking at all these it's most likely there's something not mad known to the public, remember there have been so many bounties placed on the Nigerian team to be given to the Angolans if they get victory over the Eagles.

Angola hasn't been a very brilliant team so far in the AFCON but it's not a reason to think it will be an easy game, if not for anything but for the promises made to them they will want to go the extra mile but I still see the super Eagles ahead if only they add a little improvement to their performance.

[ILuckyGuyI]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a finale between Nigeria and Ivory Coast?  I think it would definitely.  

Ivory Coast were the winner of 2015 AFCON while Nigeria became champions in the 2013 one. It has been a long while for both teams since then. Nigeria have great attackers in the squad Osimhen being at top. Boniface is missing the games due to injury but there are so many alternatives. Ivory Coast also have decent players in multiple positions. Both of them should be able to show their quality unless there is some surprise to be seen.

But after seeing many big favourites are out already it is really hard to be sure of something.  

[Franctoshi]

Wouldn't it be nice to have a finale between Nigeria and Ivory Coast?  I think it would definitely.  

Ivory Coast were the winner of 2015 AFCON while Nigeria became champions in the 2013 one. It has been a long while for both teams since then. Nigeria have great attackers in the squad Osimhen being at top. Boniface is missing the games due to injury but there are so many alternatives. Ivory Coast also have decent players in multiple positions. Both of them should be able to show their quality unless there is some surprise to be seen.

But after seeing many big favourites are out already it is really hard to be sure of something.  

Anything is possible when it comes to a game of football, but I don't see Ivory Coast making it to the final game, because there are other better team contenders ahead of Ivory Coast in this year's AFCON competition, teams like Mali and South Africa especially Mali, also, I would have prefer to see Angola make it to the finals with Nigeria, Angola would have been a better option had it been they are not facing Nigeria in the quarterfinal game.

[Dailyscript]

3 of our best players went for drug test and to be sincere with you I was surprised with this movement. Is it that CAF is looking for a way to make Nigeria lose our next game? Thank God V. Osimhen, Simon Moses and Troost-Ekong all tested negative and these are key players that we really need in this game against Angola, I don't know what they're planning against the Super Eagles. Another problem is our goalkeeper who was injured in our last game against Cameroon and I pray by tomorrow we'd hear a positive news because I honestly don't want Uzoho to be in that goalpost 😁.

Well this is a sad one for the Super Eagles because losing two key players is not what the Nigeria team can afford right now,  and to be sincere with you,  anything that makes the Nigeria team to perform lesser in the tonight's match,  it will have a huge negative impact on the team overall performance for the remaining days of the tournament,  this is very important and since this guys have been performing near average lately,  it is advisable to keep that steady pest if not there may slide out completely.

I thought they had gone through all possible drug tests before the start of this league,  am saddened to hear this that the two most active front-liners are off the team tonight.

Don't you know that assuming their was a positive in Victor Osimhen system other nigeria team would have undergo same tests because Cefn would have assuming that all nigeria teams are playing or performing with influence of drugs, and that woul have tarnish the image of nigeria team even victor Osimhen for the club, over to the match between Nigeria and Angola, Angola performance is very encouraging because I have noticed that nigeria wining matches is by the grace and when looking at their performance you can see that they have not score a goal that is like excellent but Angola team score very nice goals,  so it seems like Angola will defeat nigeria because of their method game and they do strike from far distance in which nigeria team don't strike for long distance

Remove Osimehn and Nina from the Super eagles of Nigeria team there will be decrease in performance which may lead them to lose matches. I feel that these two persons i mentioned have a very strong impact in the strength of the super eagles. Victor Osimehn at the front gives Nigeria a  much advantage because he has the capacity to create chances and win more Ariel ball than any member of the team. While having Nina at the back increases the strength of their defence since he has proven to have more interception than any other defenders in the Nigerian national team.

[QueenVera]

According to the odds from the betting platforms, Nigeria is the only team with fewer odds, which makes them the favorites in this round of eight. But we have seen how the competition has been so far; many teams we expected to have been in this stage have been eliminated, and only a few make it to this stage, which shows that anything can happen even though experience will take over hard work in these stages of the competition.

AFCON this year is interesting to watch. Many countries have stepped up their performance to prove to the world that there will be no separate teams or countries that will be ruling African football. This is a good sign of development in African football.

I am hoping that the Nigerian Super Eagles will be able to make it the semi-finals by defeating Angola, because the Angola players have already received so many gifts from different places just to encourage them to beat the Super Eagles of Nigeria, but I am sure the Super Eagles are also making all the basic preparations for the match, nevertheless, lets wait and see what the match result brings.

The match against Angola is one match that’s got the eyes of many especially as you check the odds and see that Nigeria is the only team with the smallest odd in this stage of the competition and that’s a good sign that yes they’re considered as one of the contenders for the tilte. But our fears are the surprises the AFCON holds as we see big contenders been trashed out at every stage of the competition.

 The Angola players are in high spirit for this fixture and are willing and motivated to take in this Nigeria side. Still I believe in the Super Eagles to get victory here and go through to the Semis. Victory here will boost the confidence of the Naition on them winning the trophy and it’ll also spur up the players and they’ll have this motivation to be able to go and challenge for the trophy. The players are preparing for this match evenly and are in high spirit and I’m confident they’ll get victory from this match.

[Marykeller]

Hakimi disappointed many people's faces yesterday when he lost that penalty shot. It was very painful to see him again destroy Morocco’s chance of equalising in the march, although I will say that Morocco were not just lucky in the game yesterday, because they ended up losing the game by a score of 0-2, and South Africa got their second goal after the red card given to Amrabat.

Seeing as almost all the favourite and strongest teams have been knocked out of the season, there should be a clearly unpredictable AFCON. If Nigeria are able to beat Angola in their game, all hope will be in Nigeria because it might be the only strong team left to participate, that is, if definitely they have the victory over Angola.

Apparently now I won’t predict any game about AFCON anymore because how this season AFCON is going to me is unpredictable, so the next game will be on Friday, which will be between Nigeria and Angola. I know everyone will focus on this game to see if definitely Nigeria will win the march, which I believe in them but can’t predict, and if definitely that happens, all hope will be on Nigeria to have the trophy.

I am starting to wonder if there is more to this year's AFCON tournament after all of the match surprises it has brought.

You can only imagine how this AFCON tournament has caused the five top-ranked countries (Egypt, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, and Algeria) kicked out of the AFCON. The countries that we root for to win the AFCON title all got kicked out unexpectedly.

A reminder of AFCON matches elimination since 2012. Pix below



Due to their extreme strength, Super Eagle is expected to be the fortunate nation with the best chance of winning the AFCON trophy. However, we have witnessed "a formidable team losing" in the matches, therefore I am unable to give a 100% mark for Super Eagle to be the champions of AFCON 2024.