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

[RockBell]

The Super Eagles performance in the second half was a total disaster no one knows the reason why Victor Oshimen didn't start the second half cause every thing changed when he was off the pitch the rest of the players could not control the game it was DR Congo players all over the place right from the second half to the extra minutes down to the penalties. I guess the players that missed the penalty kick for Nigeria has never practiced how to take the penalty before because it they had then they should be ashamed of themselves for their poor penalty kick.

I was very surprised by the result of the match. I expected a better gameplay from Nigeria. Nigeria failed to play well. And that is why they lost. Especially from a player like Osimhen we did not see a good performance as expected.
I agree with you that Nigeria players did not practice penalties. Simon and Bassey missed the first two penalties. Naturally the confidence of the players was broken here. Even then, despite scoring the next three penalties, Nigeria failed to win in the end.

Everyone was surprised at the turn out of the game and know one saw this one coming, everyone trusted that Nigeria should be able to have won. And the contradiction started from. Osimhen was removed I don't know why the coach made such a decision, and for a very long time now Nigeria have not qualified for the world cup and we have stars. They lack strategy, you scored first but at the end of the day they could not manage the game properly and a lot of people were angry because they could not manage a simple situation I told my friend that they should even ban them because they don't have any relevance.

[SatoPrincess]

I can’t blame the NFF that we lost the game against DR Congo. Yes the NFF is corrupt and all the bad things but they weren’t on the pitch yesterday neither were they in the locker room drafting the team strategy. In my opinion, the manager is to blame because the formation wasn’t the best and he made very poor substitutions in the game. The players- Lookman, Ndidi, and Iwobi also have a role in how the game turned out.

The Nigeria manager doesn't want to take responsibility for his team loss, so he claimed on media that someone from Congo used Vodoo during the penalty kick. In my opinion this isn't a valid reason. He said this because he knows that in Africa many people believe in spiritual things, so he's trying to shift the blame.

It is clear from the formation and his poor substitution that he made a mistake. If he can use vodoo as an excuse, what about the matches we played poorly? All this cannot resolve anything again because even the players, the majority of them didn't serious about their performance, and it will be more embarrassing to go to the World Cup with that kind of performance.

This is what I was talking about. Zero accountability. So we lost to DR Congo divine powers, well, that explains it. I would like to give Erik Chelle the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t actually say that in the post match interview.

Oh no, this is disgraceful. I just found the video on X: https://x.com/PoojaMedia/status/1990218012880990572?s=20

[Ronsbit]

I'm not surprised they've been eliminated. Judging by their performance in this qualification, I don't think the country should be sad, because they don't deserve to go to the World Cup. Look at their match against Congo today everyone thought the Super Eagles would win easily, but Congo put up a good fight. Honestly Congo deserved the win. If the Super Eagles struggle against African countries like this, imagine how they'll do against teams from other continents with star players. Won't their performance be embarrassing? Although it's unusual for the Giant of Africa to miss the World Cup back-to-back, but in my opinion it's clear they weren't ready.

It means that all the previous match of the super eagles was based on the only effort of Osimhen and that's all. All the matches Nigeria has lost was due to the cause that Osimhen was not in the pitch and it does not make a sense when a country depends on a single player to do all the works and being goals to the team while others can not use their hand and score goals that will make Nigeria profitable.

From the onset of this qualifier match, Nigeria has been lagging behind whenever one player is not available. Does it mean that without Victor Osimhen, those good-for-nothing players can not deliver the national team, and of course, it was obviously clear from the beginning of the qualifiers series that they can not even score a goal without Osimhen in performance, which is very disappointing.
I will agree with you that Osimhen has been the one putting in the effort to make sure the team scores a goal, and the other players are just there, not thinking and being creative with their football skills, and yet they play for big teams. Anyway, no more World Cup for them, let them come back and watch others play since they chose not to be up and doing in order to qualify for the World Cup tournament.

[Marykeller]

Pictures don't lie, I have been in pain since the match ended, the supper eagles hard all the chances to make the difference but they gave it all away, well we expect and welcome them back home as always, but this is sad one DR Congo of all team kicking Nigeria off world cup.

Bro is it today you are getting to know of our beloved super eagles?
Because it baffles me that you are this attached to them emotionally.
I know that you are just being patriotic supporting our super eagles, but if you have gotten some series of heart breaks from our super eagles, this losing wouldn't have been a thing of shock to you when our NFF are playing politics with our football.

All our problem started when we drew the first few qualifying games we should have won easily, that's where our problem began. The only good thing about this elimination is that many of these incompetent members in our NFF will have to answer some questions why we didn't make it to the fifa world cup that will be going on in the US/Canada next year considering the quality and talent at our disposal.

Answer some questions from whom? From Nigerians? Let's come off it. Nigerians are tired of the system of government we have, where nothing works.  Every government parastatal is doing as they like, to employ incompetent people based on connection, to do as they like.

The only person I am feeling pained for is Osimhen, as he won't get to play in the World Cup as a world superstar. The NFF and the other Super Eagles players should just disappear for all I care as they have failed us countless times.

[Oneandpure]

The Nigeria manager doesn't want to take responsibility for his team loss, so he claimed on media that someone from Congo used Vodoo during the penalty kick. In my opinion this isn't a valid reason. He said this because he knows that in Africa many people believe in spiritual things, so he's trying to shift the blame.

It is clear from the formation and his poor substitution that he made a mistake. If he can use vodoo as an excuse, what about the matches we played poorly? All this cannot resolve anything again because even the players, the majority of them didn't serious about their performance, and it will be more embarrassing to go to the World Cup with that kind of performance.

I don't believing the era football modern nowadays have any manager still believing with vodoo exactly Nigeria teams defeated from Kongo at penalty kick, its purely tactician from DR Congo success eliminating the most experienced national teams Nigeria trough the penalty kick. I watch fully the highlight match and both teams playing well have many great attempt but both goals keepers made several saves, its bit unacceptable by Nigeria national teams fans because their teams as most African teams participants every World Cup edition.

DR Congo one step closer for qualifying to World Cup and must waiting for the last playoff round match, for World Cup 2026 have many new national teams are qualifying but sadly my national Indonesia get failure too.

[Antotena]

I can’t blame the NFF that we lost the game against DR Congo. Yes the NFF is corrupt and all the bad things but they weren’t on the pitch yesterday neither were they in the locker room drafting the team strategy. In my opinion, the manager is to blame because the formation wasn’t the best and he made very poor substitutions in the game. The players- Lookman, Ndidi, and Iwobi also have a role in how the game turned out.

The way super eagles is looking right, it's not longer the name, it's now Osimhen league. When the guy was playing among them, everything was going normal, even though goal was hard there were doing better but the foolish Coach removed him for no reason. Why substitute a player that never asked to be substitute in the first place huh! Everyone knew we were going to PK with the way the team was playing, he doesn't need to make that replacement.

You see that Chukwueze guy, I thought the guy was really good or am I the only person he impressed in their last game, he did well but this Congo match, he was not supposed to even represent us, they didn't represent us in this game. At least they were able to collect their bonuses, we can now face something good but I will clap hand for Mwabali, he did all his best in that match, he saved two good PK, yet our players fumble big time, we shouldn't be happy about this guys again.

[M47AK16]

I can’t blame the NFF that we lost the game against DR Congo. Yes the NFF is corrupt and all the bad things but they weren’t on the pitch yesterday neither were they in the locker room drafting the team strategy. In my opinion, the manager is to blame because the formation wasn’t the best and he made very poor substitutions in the game. The players- Lookman, Ndidi, and Iwobi also have a role in how the game turned out.

I agree because team done good job in first half but in second half and extra time there was no good and positive performance from them which hurt badly and then here I also blame coach because he fails to keep momentum on level.

Éric Chelle formation and his strategy badly hurt their performance and confidence after game his press conference was just waste of time because talking about VODOO is completely shit as now he is trying to hide his failure in this biggest games specially in presence of many big names they fail and faced another exit which is heartbroken for Super Eagles because mostly were expecting them in this coming World Cup.

[SatoPrincess]

The only good thing about this elimination is that many of these incompetent members in our NFF will have to answer some questions why we didn't make it to the fifa world cup that will be going on in the US/Canada next year considering the quality and talent at our disposal.

Answer some questions from whom? From Nigerians? Let's come off it. Nigerians are tired of the system of government we have, where nothing works.  Every government parastatal is doing as they like, to employ incompetent people based on connection, to do as they like.

The only person I am feeling pained for is Osimhen, as he won't get to play in the World Cup as a world superstar. The NFF and the other Super Eagles players should just disappear for all I care as they have failed us countless times.

Yeah we all know that nothing is going to change. The same “azamen” will be at the head of things in the NFF, they can’t punish anyone because they are all in it together. As for Victor Osimhen, I feel bad for him. Imagine being celebrated as one of the top strikers in the world and your national team cannot get a qualification for the World Cup. It’s embarrassing.

[Sandra_hakeem]

I agree because team done good job in first half but in second half and extra time there was no good and positive performance from them which hurt badly and then here I also blame coach because he fails to keep momentum on level.

When his players weren't performing anymore, what did he do to correct the loophole? Nothing.

Éric Chelle formation and his strategy badly hurt their performance and confidence after game his press conference was just waste of time because talking about VODOO is completely shit as now he is trying to hide his failure in this biggest games specially in presence of many big names they fail and faced another exit which is heartbroken for Super Eagles because mostly were expecting them in this coming World Cup.

It's the whole Voodoo thing that brought me here...  Did this man just sit to tell a tale on national TV and expected everyone to believe him?   ...Jokes on him! What does that have to do with the team's success and failure to attend the next round, which seemed to be the only advantage we had, after defeating against Benin and Gabon with a big score aggregate. They always find other insignificant things to blame for their mismanagement.

[Bigjoe33]

The Super Eagles performance in the second half was a total disaster no one knows the reason why Victor Oshimen didn't start the second half cause every thing changed when he was off the pitch the rest of the players could not control the game it was DR Congo players all over the place right from the second half to the extra minutes down to the penalties. I guess the players that missed the penalty kick for Nigeria has never practiced how to take the penalty before because it they had then they should be ashamed of themselves for their poor penalty kick.

What a big disappointment from the Super Eagles. After Osimhen left the field, the players were playing with fear in an unprofessional way despite all the big names in the team. I was shocked to find out that Nigeria players cannot score a penalty kick. What a shame, no wonder they couldn't score more than one goal.

To to be honest I registered watching Super Eagles yesterday, the Eagles was just playing as if they haven't played football before, the most annoying part was penalty kick. What a poor performance from the Super Eagles, it would have even more better they don't get to this stage than bringing shame to the Nigerians yesterday, I didn't see any good performance from Osimhen, in fact the players played rubbish.

Years back, Nigerian football has died, and no way to resurrect them. We have big players playing and performing too well in Europe top league, yet, when they come home, many a times, there is nothing special to show or watch. When I think about it, I wonder who to blame, either the players, the coach, or the NFF. Out performance is just to poor that many Nigerians have lost hope on our super Eagles and watching them. Sincerely, I welcomed them back home yesterday with a clear mind, no sadness, Na pian, courses. Let's all stay at home and watch the world cup together on the screen come 2026. Hallelujah!

[Coyster]

The NFF are also culpable in what has happened. If a great nation like Nigeria fails to qualify for the World Cup two times in a row, then our football governing body has to also take some responsibility. I do not know who checks the NFF and who holds them accountable, both in funds management and in making important decisions, but whomever that is has to take action immediately.

That said, our manager is clueless and the players were also disappointing in most games all through the qualifiers. It is really heartbreaking, this is a country that loves football so much, so i can understand the outburst since yesterday. It is what it is though, and now we have to look forward to the AFCON starting in a few weeks time, if we can win that, then it could give us a little joy and something to celebrate.

[Proty]

I can’t blame the NFF that we lost the game against DR Congo. Yes the NFF is corrupt and all the bad things but they weren’t on the pitch yesterday neither were they in the locker room drafting the team strategy. In my opinion, the manager is to blame because the formation wasn’t the best and he made very poor substitutions in the game. The players- Lookman, Ndidi, and Iwobi also have a role in how the game turned out.

The Nigeria manager doesn't want to take responsibility for his team loss, so he claimed on media that someone from Congo used Vodoo during the penalty kick. In my opinion this isn't a valid reason. He said this because he knows that in Africa many people believe in spiritual things, so he's trying to shift the blame.

It is clear from the formation and his poor substitution that he made a mistake. If he can use vodoo as an excuse, what about the matches we played poorly? All this cannot resolve anything again because even the players, the majority of them didn't serious about their performance, and it will be more embarrassing to go to the World Cup with that kind of performance.

This is what I was talking about. Zero accountability. So we lost to DR Congo divine powers, well, that explains it. I would like to give Erik Chelle the benefit of the doubt that he didn’t actually say that in the post match interview.

Oh no, this is disgraceful. I just found the video on X: https://x.com/PoojaMedia/status/1990218012880990572?s=20

if super eagles manager actually say something like this , them he doesn't know what he is doing. In every competition there will be a winner and a loser. Even before they played this match, I already knew that this match is going to be a very tough match. There isn't anything like magic, the man should accept the reality and he should stop this kind of superstitious believe. Instead looking for were to put the blame on, His focus should be on analysing that match to know were the super eagles is actually lagging behind.

[Sexylizzy2813]

The Super Eagles performance in the second half was a total disaster no one knows the reason why Victor Oshimen didn't start the second half cause every thing changed when he was off the pitch the rest of the players could not control the game it was DR Congo players all over the place right from the second half to the extra minutes down to the penalties. I guess the players that missed the penalty kick for Nigeria has never practiced how to take the penalty before because it they had then they should be ashamed of themselves for their poor penalty kick.

Who should we blame in all these madness? The players, the coach or the NFF? This has been running through my head since last night and I can't find the answer to it. Without Osimhen our Super Eagles squad is nothing and can not perform well, as he was substituted the ball stopped going forward and each time we managed to reach the 18 yard box they become clueless, to even hit the ball on target is a problem and like I said before that if there is no Osimhen we don't have a back up striker. This is when a team rely on one player and build the force of the team around a particular player, it doesn't turn out well. I hope the NFF got what they deserve and it has been their making, at some point I feel happy because they won't get any money from FIFA for any World Cup preparation which they'll still pocket, let them start from scratch that's if they want to grow the football sector.

I can’t blame the NFF that we lost the game against DR Congo. Yes the NFF is corrupt and all the bad things but they weren’t on the pitch yesterday neither were they in the locker room drafting the team strategy. In my opinion, the manager is to blame because the formation wasn’t the best and he made very poor substitutions in the game. The players- Lookman, Ndidi, and Iwobi also have a role in how the game turned out.

I blame NFF because of poor planning and we know how they do invite players who are not suppose to get the national call up and they avoid calling players who are doing well in their respective club side. How can we as a nation say Osimhen is the only striker we have who's equally doing well? That's not suppose to be because we have strikers who are too good but because of man know man how can we go far?
Osimhen left the game and the manager should bring in a more mobile player like Osimhen, that's called complete lack of preparation and I won't also blame the managers Eric Chelle because he is only making use of the players available so I won't blame him that much.

[Cookdata]

I blame NFF because of poor planning and we know how they do invite players who are not suppose to get the national call up and they avoid calling players who are doing well in their respective club side. How can we as a nation say Osimhen is the only striker we have who's equally doing well? That's not suppose to be because we have strikers who are too good but because of man know man how can we go far?
Osimhen left the game and the manager should bring in a more mobile player like Osimhen, that's called complete lack of preparation and I won't also blame the managers Eric Chelle because he is only making use of the players available so I won't blame him that much.

If Eric knows this formation isn't going to work well like he intended, trust me he is not going to play some of the players that started the match but you know what gave him full confidence, scoring goal under 4 minute of the game is anything that will make the coach very happy about. He was expecting more, he was waiting through the entire time but they couldn't do more than the first goal, you can see that the first goal was luck and wasn't anything about the plan.

I'm not going to blame any player, we are getting what we are presenting at the federation. I can assure you that we have better players than what we have yesterday on the field but nepotism and favoritism will not allow the NFF to look at lower class leagues to choose better players. At least they should mix this players from national Premier leagues and see the result for once. I'm very sure they will love the appearance of some players but corruption wouldn't let this idea grow.

[uche6215]

I blame NFF because of poor planning and we know how they do invite players who are not suppose to get the national call up and they avoid calling players who are doing well in their respective club side. How can we as a nation say Osimhen is the only striker we have who's equally doing well? That's not suppose to be because we have strikers who are too good but because of man know man how can we go far?
Osimhen left the game and the manager should bring in a more mobile player like Osimhen, that's called complete lack of preparation and I won't also blame the managers Eric Chelle because he is only making use of the players available so I won't blame him that much.

If Eric knows this formation isn't going to work well like he intended, trust me he is not going to play some of the players that started the match but you know what gave him full confidence, scoring goal under 4 minute of the game is anything that will make the coach very happy about. He was expecting more, he was waiting through the entire time but they couldn't do more than the first goal, you can see that the first goal was luck and wasn't anything about the plan.

I'm not going to blame any player, we are getting what we are presenting at the federation. I can assure you that we have better players than what we have yesterday on the field but nepotism and favoritism will not allow the NFF to look at lower class leagues to choose better players. At least they should mix this players from national Premier leagues and see the result for once. I'm very sure they will love the appearance of some players but corruption wouldn't let this idea grow.

Eric Chelle would have known better for now that he as been in the system for sometime. Those players who played in the Gabon game would have been interchange. In the sense that Victor Osimhen would have played the second half. Well we don't have to worry ourselves again. The Tournament is over for the Super Eagles and it is good they didn't qualify because the kind of heart attack people would have gotten in the main World Cup because of Nigeria Super Eagles. Super Eagles players still lack tactics to play against good teams.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

Congo was prepared for the first half, second half, extra time and penalties, when it was close to the second half of the extra time the removed their keeper and replaced him with another that is better at penalties but Nigeria was on prepared for the first after after that it was just about holding on and praying a miracle can help them. Mose Simon and ajayi’s penalty where very bad, the Nigerian keeper tried to keep the team in the game but the game just wanted to go the best team. I will be supporting Congo now on their road to the world cup.

This game should have been decided before the first half of the game but our boys where busy dragging when they should have communicated to make it two goals to nil. Those goals we missed came back to hunt us finally and as for the manager?! I appreciate him being tactically sound but sometimes he behaves like Chelsea's manager. How do you start soft players like Lookman and Chukwueze against a physical side as Congo?!  His selection wasn't bad but the soft players shouldn't have started. Nothing much to say, we have accepted our faith. I'm not as passionate like I used to be so I'm not pained over the results.

Yea and they won’t even be dragging if Ademola Lookman had looked up in time to see that Victor Osimhen was free to just tap the ball in. The first was just Congo overwhelmed by the names of players Nigeria had but they finally saw that Nigeria football just have names that are not committed to playing.
The Nigerian coach talking about The Congolese using Voodoo is something he should not do on an interview, it is unprofessional of Eric to accuse the Congolese of using Voodoo to win the penalty.

[Roseline492]

The Nigeria manager doesn't want to take responsibility for his team loss, so he claimed on media that someone from Congo used Vodoo during the penalty kick. In my opinion this isn't a valid reason. He said this because he knows that in Africa many people believe in spiritual things, so he's trying to shift the blame.

It is clear from the formation and his poor substitution that he made a mistake. If he can use vodoo as an excuse, what about the matches we played poorly? All this cannot resolve anything again because even the players,

Eric Chelle should just say that the Gabon squad was strong instead of all this big talk, it doesn't fit his career, they win you and you think the winning was not ordinary, was it not the same wining Cameroon get from them and they accepted it without thinking there was something behind it, he is saying what he did not see and besides soccer today is not like those days when people think that they can win using magic charm on there fellow players, perhaps he is afraid of what Nigerians would say to him that's why using Voodoo is the only option he could use to get away from being blamed by anybody.

[Adbitco]

Pictures don't lie, I have been in pain since the match ended, the supper eagles hard all the chances to make the difference but they gave it all away, well we expect and welcome them back home as always, but this is sad one DR Congo of all team kicking Nigeria off world cup.

I have come to the point in my life were I don't feel much pressure concerning the Nigerian national team, if they win, I will be happy and if they don't, I just move on. It was back in the days that I really do feel the impact of their loss and sometimes I don't even eat anymore after this kind of loss, then I was so passionate about the Super Eagles, but now, lol. I just flow with the rhythm. It hurts but I don't really put much of it to my heart.

[Mr Reporter]

The only good thing about this elimination is that many of these incompetent members in our NFF will have to answer some questions why we didn't make it to the fifa world cup that will be going on in the US/Canada next year considering the quality and talent at our disposal.

Answer some questions from whom? From Nigerians? Let's come off it. Nigerians are tired of the system of government we have, where nothing works.  Every government parastatal is doing as they like, to employ incompetent people based on connection, to do as they like.

The only person I am feeling pained for is Osimhen, as he won't get to play in the World Cup as a world superstar. The NFF and the other Super Eagles players should just disappear for all I care as they have failed us countless times.

Yeah we all know that nothing is going to change. The same “azamen” will be at the head of things in the NFF, they can’t punish anyone because they are all in it together. As for Victor Osimhen, I feel bad for him. Imagine being celebrated as one of the top strikers in the world and your national team cannot get a qualification for the World Cup. It’s embarrassing.

Well now I see your point seeing the same faces run the NFF and feeling like nothing ever shifts is frustrating, especially when the federation seems more interested in protecting its own than fixing the mess. It’s a vicious cycle that leaves the players out in the cold.

And man, Osimhen’s situation is a real gut‑punch. He’s lighting it up in Europe, yet the Super Eagles keep hitting roadblocks on the biggest stage.

[Pjcr7]

I blame NFF because of poor planning and we know how they do invite players who are not suppose to get the national call up and they avoid calling players who are doing well in their respective club side. How can we as a nation say Osimhen is the only striker we have who's equally doing well? That's not suppose to be because we have strikers who are too good but because of man know man how can we go far?
Osimhen left the game and the manager should bring in a more mobile player like Osimhen, that's called complete lack of preparation and I won't also blame the managers Eric Chelle because he is only making use of the players available so I won't blame him that much.

Poor planning I agree but I don't think they called up players that were not meant to be on the team. For some years now, Nigeria has used the best players available for their respective positions, maybe expect that period Osimhen and the ex coach had some problems. Osimhen is the only lethal striker Nigeria has and no one else for now can feel his boots and it's evident.