African Football Discussion Thread Current Topic: 👉 AFCON 2025/2026

[Roseline492]

Whenever I see Victor Osimhen on the match list of either the first people or the players who would be coming on the second half after some are already getting exhausted, is actually when there is much hope for the club to win and you would be seeing Victor Osimhen more challenging than his usual self, Osimhen cannot see his country depending on just a wining to qualify and he will be relenting. The time they even equalize with South Africa was the best time being the first half so that they would do everything they had in mind in other to qualify, actually if not that he was too important against Rwanda it could have been better not to play that match in other to have been present with South Africa.

Seems this coach does not really know how to utilize players in their capacity, and also he does not know the players to reserve for the next important match.

Is a difficult thing for me to only put everything on the shoulder of this coach because already there was an imbalanced on the team before they go to the match and this imbalance was enough to rip off wining in the match so actually that's one of the things I hold to be the reason why they could not emerge on this list, the inability of utilization of players would have been questioned if there was an intact of the full squad but on this case it was not complete and not just that but the only person whom we have been believing and boosting of to be the only one who doesn't fail even when others are failing couldn't be present because of what he is facing.

[Agbamoni]

Each of the games for Nigeria was an important game that winning it to earn the 3 points was a must and I wouldn't blame Eric Chelle at all for not reserving any key players in the Nigeria Vs Rwanda game. Should the coach had reserved Osimhen or any other key player in that game and peradventure Nigeria draw the match and later won against South Africa, it still wouldn't have changed a thing.

The World Cup qualification didn't start today. The Super Eagles never took it serious. If they had put in serious at the very beginning, they would be topping the group. I am pretty sure they underestimated the other country's in Group C excluding South Africa.

When I speak about the Super Eagles, it upsets me. No one expected them not to qualify because they have the biggest squad ever in Africa.

[Callido]

We the supporters and fans that are watching them outside are the feeling it, whereas they, the players don't really care much, and after all, they will get paid, so why would they even get bothered.

How much is the federation paying them, don't forget majority of our players are international players. There is no big amount our federation are paying the players that is close to what they earn in respective club, the struggle is for the badge only that they don't take it a lot serious as we expect.

The world cup is held every four years and we didn't qualify twice, eight years gone very quickly whereas this set of players will be old not to play for the team and in their career in national level, they failed consecutively qualifying for the world cup.

[nelson4lov]

I don't think there is any need to try to blame South Africa for their poor pitch whether they did it intentionally or not because if we had won our first 7 games or at least won 5, we would've in a better position such that whatever gets thrown at us in South Africa (bad pitch, bad officiating, etc), we would still come out strong. This pointing of fingers won't do any good. The problem right now is that even as we have top stars, we can't compete at the international stage—good pitch or not and that's worrisome.

[Nightwatchmare]

Although I can only work out of there match if they are wining against them because of messing up. There was an aggression against Osimhen that I think referee should have done better than that because his aiming wasn't on the ball and before he could reach Osimhen the ball was no longer there but he instead strike Osimhen leg that could have actually affected his kneel,

It was his ankle that was affected, and he was not happy about the tackle because he understands how important that game is for the Super Eagles and how important he is to the team.

As a result of the injury, Osimhen has not travelled with the Super Eagles team to South Africa and will be absent for that game.

That Rwandan player has ruined everything for the super eagles because the hope of winning South Africans by chance is no longer strong as we were thinking, perhaps the player plan was to really remove Osimhen from there match against them so that our front line will be empty without an enforcer so that they could win the eagles but nothing happened. Honestly without Osimhen against South Africans we can't win them because Osimhen personality is just one in the whole super eagles, although some others are fine but Osimhen is mostly the one who can do all the coordination on that front.

Osimhen is who he is today because he can single handedly change a game, win a match and bring the 3 points home, that differentiates him from any other Nigerian player out there, his presence is significant in the super eagles team, especially now that we need him the most to try to qualify. Osimhen's going on an injury or not participate in the against South Africa would be a no choice.

What gives a national team the power to gain dominance against other national teams is having a player who can single handedly change a game and win a match. The super eagles is lucky to have a player like Victor Osimhen in their mist because Victor Osimhen is that kind of a player who can change a game and help his team achieve 3 points in a game. The super eagles playing against the South African team without Victor Osimhen was the reason the super eagles couldn't defeat the South African team. If Victor Osimhen was fit to play against the South African team, the super eagles could have defeated the South African team.

[Oshio-man]

I don't think there is any need to try to blame South Africa for their poor pitch whether they did it intentionally or not because if we had won our first 7 games or at least won 5, we would've in a better position such that whatever gets thrown at us in South Africa (bad pitch, bad officiating, etc), we would still come out strong. This pointing of fingers won't do any good. The problem right now is that even as we have top stars, we can't compete at the international stage—good pitch or not and that's worrisome.

Any coach government will sign to coach super eagle they will like to value those players that are playing big teams in abroad, than Nigeria players playing within the country who are talented players, does it mean those coaches don't have the ability to coach super eagle players in the country to challenge other international players, Now that the qualify stage is coming to an end, super eagle is playing is trying to improve compared their starting that made super eagle to lose against Benin, South Africa and managed to defeated Rwanda 1-0 that make super eagle not to encourage Nigeria in this season,  even though South Africa stadium is not good for them to play well, what of Nigeria stadium that is among the best stadium in Africa but they lost there too for you to know that this season tournament is the worst I have experience from super eagle.

[Zigabel]

Victor is more than three players put together in the Super Eagles. He would have tormented the South African defence until they made mistakes or cause a penalty. I watched our last game and I felt sorry for the National Team without Osimhen. No striker was willing or able to take the risk of solo runs which was bad. The South African defence was partially on holiday because instead of attacking, our players were busy slowing the game and taking balls back to our half. It was indeed a pathetic situation.  

I know Victor is very good, he is such an exceptional no doubts but this comparison as some exaggeration in it, I know he can put some very outstanding performance that will be almost commensurate to that of three players pit together but it still does not make him an equal to three at once and that is because this kind of show and performance is occasional per fixture and so he can not shoulder the role of three at once in a complete game even if they are playing against a division one team.

His presence would have helped the Super Eagles a whole lot and would have possible improved their chances at victory but for everthing that happens there's a reason so we can't dwell too long on the past, we just have to move on and hope for the best that the Eagles eventually fly at the world cup.

[Spaceman1000$]

Whenever I see Victor Osimhen on the match list of either the first people or the players who would be coming on the second half after some are already getting exhausted, is actually when there is much hope for the club to win and you would be seeing Victor Osimhen more challenging than his usual self, Osimhen cannot see his country depending on just a wining to qualify and he will be relenting. The time they even equalize with South Africa was the best time being the first half so that they would do everything they had in mind in other to qualify, actually if not that he was too important against Rwanda it could have been better not to play that match in other to have been present with South Africa.

Seems this coach does not really know how to utilize players in their capacity, and also he does not know the players to reserve for the next important match.

Is a difficult thing for me to only put everything on the shoulder of this coach because already there was an imbalanced on the team before they go to the match and this imbalance was enough to rip off wining in the match so actually that's one of the things I hold to be the reason why they could not emerge on this list, the inability of utilization of players would have been questioned if there was an intact of the full squad but on this case it was not complete and not just that but the only person whom we have been believing and boosting of to be the only one who doesn't fail even when others are failing couldn't be present because of what he is facing.

That's the mistake the technical crew shouldn't be doing by building the team around a single person, so immediately that person is off, the team comes back to square one and begin to struggle unnecessarily. I agree with you about the imbalance in the team, that has to do with the fact that lots of this players have not blinded enough, new guys are been introduced into the squad with different playing approach. The super Eagles have the players, but they don't have a team.

[GiftedMAN]

I don't think there is any need to try to blame South Africa for their poor pitch whether they did it intentionally or not because if we had won our first 7 games or at least won 5, we would've in a better position such that whatever gets thrown at us in South Africa (bad pitch, bad officiating, etc), we would still come out strong. This pointing of fingers won't do any good. The problem right now is that even as we have top stars, we can't compete at the international stage—good pitch or not and that's worrisome.

The Nigerian Super Eagles should stop pointing fingers and their supporters should continue to blame them and not the South African team and their pitch for not winning the game no one asked them to be sleeping when other teams were winning their games, our team had the opportunity to make it easier at the first stage but what did they do, they kept on dropping points until it got to the point where they find it difficult to qualify now they are beginning to call names there's nothing they will get after all the talks.

The team has failed they should stop complaining infact the other pitch where they couldn't win their games was it also the poor officiating or bad pitch that stopped them from winning? excuses will definitely come when they don't win games.

[CryptSafe]

The Nigerian Super Eagles should stop pointing fingers and their supporters should continue to blame them and not the South African team and their pitch for not winning the game no one asked them to be sleeping when other teams were winning their games, our team had the opportunity to make it easier at the first stage but what did they do, they kept on dropping points until it got to the point where they find it difficult to qualify now they are beginning to call names there's nothing they will get after all the talks.

The team has failed they should stop complaining infact the other pitch where they couldn't win their games was it also the poor officiating or bad pitch that stopped them from winning? excuses will definitely come when they don't win games.

Sometimes I wonder if it is over expertise or over experience that is the problem of the team, or what, because when I look at other international teams that have the same squad as we do, they perform very well in their matches, and their records are clean, but ours is always different. Amongst the African teams, Nigeria is the only team that has a good number of international players which should have given the team a good leverage but here the reverse is the case and they are still struggling to qualify for the world cup tournament even in the midst of African teams that could be a walkover for the team, they still could not be able to win 50% of the matches they have played so far. What an embarrassment.

They should not use pitch as an excuse for their draw with SA, because in their previous matches, they could not win, even while playing on a good pitch, it is still the same result they got, so why complain about the SA pitch not being in good shape for them? It is best they just forget about the rest of the matches rather than waste the ticket if they eventually get it.

[Roseline492]

Is a difficult thing for me to only put everything on the shoulder of this coach because already there was an imbalanced on the team before they go to the match and this imbalance was enough to rip off wining in the match so actually that's one of the things I hold to be the reason why they could not emerge on this list, the inability of utilization of players would have been questioned if there was an intact of the full squad but on this case it was not complete and not just that but the only person whom we have been believing and boosting of to be the only one who doesn't fail even when others are failing couldn't be present because of what he is facing.

That's the mistake the technical crew shouldn't be doing by building the team around a single person, so immediately that person is off, the team comes back to square one and begin to struggle unnecessarily. I agree with you about the imbalance in the team, that has to do with the fact that lots of this players have not blinded enough, new guys are been introduced into the squad with different playing approach. The super Eagles have the players, but they don't have a team.

No this is not a Technical crew faults because they never did that, performance is developed by a person and not for those who is in charge, all this strength and determination Osimhen has was his reward of positive conviction and you no that football is a technical skills which someone is being regarded based on what they're given so actually when you produce good thing for the club they would regard you based on that so if you seeing that they valued him so much doesn't mean that the technical team only concentrated on working on him, perhaps even if you were privileged to coach wouldn't you take the players who are serious and doesn't let there team down as important players in regards to every match you are going?.

[Promocodeudo]

The Nigerian Super Eagles should stop pointing fingers and their supporters should continue to blame them and not the South African team and their pitch for not winning the game no one asked them to be sleeping when other teams were winning their games, our team had the opportunity to make it easier at the first stage but what did they do, they kept on dropping points until it got to the point where they find it difficult to qualify now they are beginning to call names there's nothing they will get after all the talks.

The team has failed they should stop complaining infact the other pitch where they couldn't win their games was it also the poor officiating or bad pitch that stopped them from winning? excuses will definitely come when they don't win games.

People can be funny, I believe every team prepared for this qualifiers, am still finding it difficult to understand the reason for the silly excuses by the Nigeria super eagle, if they had won their easy matches convincingly I think there wouldn't have been any reason for using their opponent football pitch as excuses, you know when people that don't like taking full responsibility of their actions run out of excuses, they will come up with the funniest ones that will make people to actually understand that they weren't  ready from the beginning, it is unfortunate that we had a team that has never been serious from day one.

[Iamgoat]

I don't think there is any need to try to blame South Africa for their poor pitch whether they did it intentionally or not because if we had won our first 7 games or at least won 5, we would've in a better position such that whatever gets thrown at us in South Africa (bad pitch, bad officiating, etc), we would still come out strong. This pointing of fingers won't do any good. The problem right now is that even as we have top stars, we can't compete at the international stage—good pitch or not and that's worrisome.

I like your blunt response. We should stop this attitude of blaming others over our lack of performance whether it's called a bad officiating, a bad pitch, a bad whether or even a lack of friendly environment, the bottomline is we've not delivered good performance over a period of time and it is because of our inconsistency, we are complaining like this. If we have performed well from the initial stage, we would have ignored these complaints even when they are valid. I keep saying, if we really want to take huge competitive path, we must work very hard to do so. We have the squad depth to achieve such milestone but what I think we lack is the motivation to work hard for the interest of the government and also to work in a smooth cohesive manner.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

I don't think there is any need to try to blame South Africa for their poor pitch whether they did it intentionally or not because if we had won our first 7 games or at least won 5, we would've in a better position such that whatever gets thrown at us in South Africa (bad pitch, bad officiating, etc), we would still come out strong. This pointing of fingers won't do any good. The problem right now is that even as we have top stars, we can't compete at the international stage—good pitch or not and that's worrisome.

You said it all. Why didn't we win our matches when we had the opportunity to top the group. I still think Nigeria needs a home based coach and not all those foreign coaches. We need to teach our players to respect home based coach and that's when we can achieve something with this team. Nobody is going to understand the players and what the qualifications means to us then ourselves.

I'm just angry because this is a disgrace. Are we all hearing what the South African coach is saying, that the super egales has no Nigerian playing in the team and he isn't far firm the truth,.

We put our trust in players playing abroad yet they can't deliver anything for us. Victor Osimhen own is to be getting injured every time when he knows he's our only trusted striker.

The scouting team need to look wetin the Nigerian local league and bring players that'll be willing to play for the country.

[Lida93]

Each of the games for Nigeria was an important game that winning it to earn the 3 points was a must and I wouldn't blame Eric Chelle at all for not reserving any key players in the Nigeria Vs Rwanda game. Should the coach had reserved Osimhen or any other key player in that game and peradventure Nigeria draw the match and later won against South Africa, it still wouldn't have changed a thing.

Eric chelle has done well during his short stay as the coach of our super eagles team even though our super eagles are in a tight Conner in the group standings, and those that put us in such a sorry state is our NFF and the first two coaches in charge of the super eagles team before his arrival, so I wouldn't put much blame on him about our league standings because no one in his right sense will be reserving his best players when he knows that both games are a must win games, but since their is no need feeling pity for ourselves, is for him and his super eagles team to try and look if they can secure the second spot that qualifys them for a play off spot, because the top spot position has been lost.

Weldone for the expansive points you made here and it's exactly there's no lie in what you said. I never liked Eric Chelle right from when he was employed by the NFF for the coaching job but comparing his achievements in the number of games he had managed with the Super Eagles to the two coaches that were before Chelle in this qualifiers competition, I am convinced that Eric Chelle would have landed us on a much safer place in the group than were we are now. Only a miracle can see us into this 2026 world cup

[Mate2237]

The Nigerian Super Eagles should stop pointing fingers and their supporters should continue to blame them and not the South African team and their pitch for not winning the game no one asked them to be sleeping when other teams were winning their games, our team had the opportunity to make it easier at the first stage but what did they do, they kept on dropping points until it got to the point where they find it difficult to qualify now they are beginning to call names there's nothing they will get after all the talks.

The team has failed they should stop complaining infact the other pitch where they couldn't win their games was it also the poor officiating or bad pitch that stopped them from winning? excuses will definitely come when they don't win games.

People can be funny, I believe every team prepared for this qualifiers, am still finding it difficult to understand the reason for the silly excuses by the Nigeria super eagle, if they had won their easy matches convincingly I think there wouldn't have been any reason for using their opponent football pitch as excuses, you know when people that don't like taking full responsibility of their actions run out of excuses, they will come up with the funniest ones that will make people to actually understand that they weren't  ready from the beginning, it is unfortunate that we had a team that has never been serious from day one.

Anyone blaming others for their failure in life is said to remain in that situation blaming others for the rest of his life, it's has become a pattern by the nigerian super eagles to always throw blame at others calling out bad pitch, whether etc this is a sign that Nigeria will continue to struggle in football until we leave this childish attitude of throwing blame.



Virtually every year Nigeria must depends on other countries to win so that they can qualify every team has thesame numbers of games to play, the super eagles of Nigeria always start qualifiers very sluggishly showing signs of unseriousness until when it becomes too late that is when they start apportioning blame to others.

[nelson4lov]

~Snip

You said it all. Why didn't we win our matches when we had the opportunity to top the group. I still think Nigeria needs a home based coach and not all those foreign coaches. We need to teach our players to respect home based coach and that's when we can achieve something with this team. Nobody is going to understand the players and what the qualifications means to us then ourselves.

I'm just angry because this is a disgrace. Are we all hearing what the South African coach is saying, that the super egales has no Nigerian playing in the team and he isn't far firm the truth,.

We put our trust in players playing abroad yet they can't deliver anything for us. Victor Osimhen own is to be getting injured every time when he knows he's our only trusted striker.

The scouting team need to look wetin the Nigerian local league and bring players that'll be willing to play for the country.

This is part of the reason why it's hard to watch our games. If we want to compare squad quality, we should rank either top 3 if not top 1 as the team with the best squad but not in results because we're terrible in that regard. You made a good point as well because these players will play exceptionally at their respective clubs but come to play for national team and will deliver a 3/10 performance. At this point, I think it's safe to say we are better off not going to the world cup than going there and showcase disgraceful performances.

... And South Africa coach is right.

[Mr Reporter]

The Nigerian Super Eagles should stop pointing fingers and their supporters should continue to blame them and not the South African team and their pitch for not winning the game no one asked them to be sleeping when other teams were winning their games, our team had the opportunity to make it easier at the first stage but what did they do, they kept on dropping points until it got to the point where they find it difficult to qualify now they are beginning to call names there's nothing they will get after all the talks.

The team has failed they should stop complaining infact the other pitch where they couldn't win their games was it also the poor officiating or bad pitch that stopped them from winning? excuses will definitely come when they don't win games.

People can be funny, I believe every team prepared for this qualifiers, am still finding it difficult to understand the reason for the silly excuses by the Nigeria super eagle, if they had won their easy matches convincingly I think there wouldn't have been any reason for using their opponent football pitch as excuses, you know when people that don't like taking full responsibility of their actions run out of excuses, they will come up with the funniest ones that will make people to actually understand that they weren't  ready from the beginning, it is unfortunate that we had a team that has never been serious from day one.

Well expressing frustration and disappointment with the Nigeria Super Eagles' performance and excuses in the qualifier was really needed i most say.

feeling the team is avoiding accountability for their performance, citing the opponent's football pitch as an excuse.

And also  believing the excuses are unconvincing, especially if the team had won their matches convincingly.

Pulse i think the team's behavior suggests a lack of seriousness and preparation from the beginning.

[Donneski]

The Nigerian Super Eagles should stop pointing fingers and their supporters should continue to blame them and not the South African team and their pitch for not winning the game no one asked them to be sleeping when other teams were winning their games, our team had the opportunity to make it easier at the first stage but what did they do, they kept on dropping points until it got to the point where they find it difficult to qualify now they are beginning to call names there's nothing they will get after all the talks.

The team has failed they should stop complaining infact the other pitch where they couldn't win their games was it also the poor officiating or bad pitch that stopped them from winning? excuses will definitely come when they don't win games.

Well expressing frustration and disappointment with the Nigeria Super Eagles' performance and excuses in the qualifier was really needed i most say.

feeling the team is avoiding accountability for their performance, citing the opponent's football pitch as an excuse.

And also  believing the excuses are unconvincing, especially if the team had won their matches convincingly.

Pulse i think the team's behavior suggests a lack of seriousness and preparation from the beginning.

It's obvious that the management of the Super Eagles of Nigeria are trying every possible means to avoid being blamed for the national team's current position in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

The NFF gambled with Nigeria's qualification to the next edition of the FIFA World Cup and that's why we are currently were we are in the qualifying table.

Just like former Nigeria international John Mikel Obi said, I think everyone in the NFF deserves to be relieved of their position should the team fail to qualify for the FIFA World Cup next year.

[Smartvirus]

The World Cup qualification didn't start today. The Super Eagles never took it serious. If they had put in serious at the very beginning, they would be topping the group. I am pretty sure they underestimated the other country's in Group C excluding South Africa.

When I speak about the Super Eagles, it upsets me. No one expected them not to qualify because they have the biggest squad ever in Africa.

It was a big blow on the face of Nigerians, how we pride ourselves in our team and what we could do, the team has got the squad to not only qualify but, to stay longer in the tournament than any African nation. Unfortunately, these guys are way more into TikTok, social media attention and other things than they do football.

NFF really need to see past the politics and starts putting more into proper player selection and motivation because, this right here with the way they are handling things, they are just destroying the game for Nigerians.