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

[uche6215]

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.

They should sack him since he could not qualify the world cup which was the main mandate of bringing him. He was employed to qualify the World Cup yet he couldn't so what is the reason of keeping him again. He is just bringing different excuses for the Super Eagles down fall. Dr. Congo won Nigeria Football Team to qualify in the World Cup, it is a very big disgrace. Those Countries like South Africa and Niger Republic would be very happy because they don't want Nigeria to qualify in the World Cup. Victor Osimhen is ashamed because he is an renowned person in the international football and he is doing well internationally but the club or the country that he came from could not qualify in the world cup. That is a very big shame.

[Adbitco]

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 statement is funny and childish at the same time, why not suck it off that your tactics didn't work and that your opponent played better, created better scoring chances than your team. To me this is a very silly excuse to give as a reason why your team lost the match on penalties. His awful substitutions were also part and the reason why he lost the match.

[Chilwell]

They should sack him since he could not qualify the world cup which was the main mandate of bringing him. He was employed to qualify the World Cup yet he couldn't so what is the reason of keeping him again. He is just bringing different excuses for the Super Eagles down fall. Dr. Congo won Nigeria Football Team to qualify in the World Cup, it is a very big disgrace. Those Countries like South Africa and Niger Republic would be very happy because they don't want Nigeria to qualify in the World Cup. Victor Osimhen is ashamed because he is an renowned person in the international football and he is doing well internationally but the club or the country that he came from could not qualify in the world cup. That is a very big shame.

Starting from the beginning of this qualification, I wasn't convinced with Nigeria's performance because what they should have done earlier is what they are struggling to do when they are at the toughest stage. I support you on the sacking of the coach, to be honest I didn't see any effect meaning positive effect from the super Eagles since when he arrived as the head coach. After being disqualified, I started to be happy because if they qualify they will put us frustrations, because already we are facing frustration from the government then if they qualify it will add up to that frustration making it to be two. Super Eagles have very good players who are top players in their clubs but I don't really know what is wrong with them. Those teams that defeated us as behind us in terms of players capacity.

[Victorybit1]

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 statement is funny and childish at the same time, why not suck it off that your tactics didn't work and that your opponent played better, created better scoring chances than your team. To me this is a very silly excuse to give as a reason why your team lost the match on penalties. His awful substitutions were also part and the reason why he lost the match.

When I first saw this post match comment from the coach, I just taught to why he would even go as far as saying such silly comments because let's take the penalty kicks aside, Congo for me deserved the win more than Nigeria, I mean they played with so much will and need to win it and also coupled with the fact that they actually scored twice of which all were cancelled and Nigeria on the other hand struggled to even make or create any good chances through out the match.

[Issa56]

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.

So the super eagle coach is claiming that Congo used Vodoo during penalty shootout, that’s really a stupid excuse to give, a match thats suppose to be a easy win for super eagles, see the way Congo played super eagles in the match. Since the super eagles coach knew that Congo were going to make use of Vodoo when they get to penalty level, then why did he allow the match to get to that level.

That’s a stupid excuse to give, he should just accept defeat and look for a way to improve the teams performance, trying to give all this excuse is so annoying, he is trying to blame others for the mistake which he made, with the amounts of players that the super eagles are having, the coach couldn’t properly make use of them.

[Jegileman]

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.

He is an unserious person to be using that as excuse, it is very shameful for him to even say that but maybe they don’t feel it anymore. There is something still missing in that team that’s making us face this type of big disgrace. Nigeria missing out in two world cups back to back is not what I foresee of them now, they have a very good squad but are not productive, this is very bad of them.

If need be, I think this coach needs to be changed before AFCON, because he won’t be able to do anything for us there either since he can’t make us get a ticket for the World Cup. I am as well disappointed in the Nigerian national team as other fellow Nigerians, I will just check out on another team to support for the World Cup because it is always intriguing to watch and follow up even when your country is not participating.

[Iamgoat]

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.

No way in modern football a real manager should be throwing around Voodoo talk like this especially after a tight match like this one. I watched the highlights and it does not suggest any form of Voodoo. In fact if there was one they would have applied it during the game and not wait until it was penalty shootouts. Also if it was Voodoo their team players would not have lose two penalty kicks to Nwabali's save. It would have appeared like a fire to him or a storm yet he said two good shots. But what was this man thinking before when he did not allow our two great stars Osimhen and Lookman to play the penalties. Was he thinking he could make history without using Osimhen and Lookman and you expected it to go in favor of the super eagle players
 

[Nheer]

They should sack him since he could not qualify the world cup which was the main mandate of bringing him. He was employed to qualify the World Cup yet he couldn't so what is the reason of keeping him again. He is just bringing different excuses for the Super Eagles down fall. Dr. Congo won Nigeria Football Team to qualify in the World Cup, it is a very big disgrace. Those Countries like South Africa and Niger Republic would be very happy because they don't want Nigeria to qualify in the World Cup. Victor Osimhen is ashamed because he is an renowned person in the international football and he is doing well internationally but the club or the country that he came from could not qualify in the world cup. That is a very big shame.

Starting from the beginning of this qualification, I wasn't convinced with Nigeria's performance because what they should have done earlier is what they are struggling to do when they are at the toughest stage. I support you on the sacking of the coach, to be honest I didn't see any effect meaning positive effect from the super Eagles since when he arrived as the head coach. After being disqualified, I started to be happy because if they qualify they will put us frustrations, because already we are facing frustration from the government then if they qualify it will add up to that frustration making it to be two. Super Eagles have very good players who are top players in their clubs but I don't really know what is wrong with them. Those teams that defeated us as behind us in terms of players capacity.

The same thing I felt when qualifiers started, I wasn't satisfied with their performance and I even discussed it with a friend of mine that Nigeria might struggle in this qualifiers if they keep playing like that unless they improve their performance. They were just a bit better when they were about to miss out the playoffs but the improvement was still not enough to qualify for the intercontinental playoff, I doubt if they will be able to make it out of the intercontinental playoff if they had qualified.

This coach is not the best but I believe he is fair in handling the team compared to past coaches and if he is sacked will they get a better coach? I feel the players are not motivated enough. Dr. Congo is not a team not to beat but with how Nigeria has been performing I expected the game to be difficult for them. It would be nice to see Nigeria and Osimhen play in the world cup but somehow I feel if they make it to the world cup they will disappoint us even more because this performance can't go anywhere past the group stage in the world cup.

[Cookdata]

They should sack him since he could not qualify the world cup which was the main mandate of bringing him. He was employed to qualify the World Cup yet he couldn't so what is the reason of keeping him again. He is just bringing different excuses for the Super Eagles down fall. Dr. Congo won Nigeria Football Team to qualify in the World Cup, it is a very big disgrace. Those Countries like South Africa and Niger Republic would be very happy because they don't want Nigeria to qualify in the World Cup. Victor Osimhen is ashamed because he is an renowned person in the international football and he is doing well internationally but the club or the country that he came from could not qualify in the world cup. That is a very big shame.

One thing about Nigerians is that we are blessed with how to move on. By the time Afcon resumes we will forget that this ever happened. I don't care what others think but if we can have it hard with Congo like this, I don't want to see us in the World cup because you can't win the world cup this way. Everytime we must pass through tough stages and be calculating who to win before we qualified and who we are not going to play, I get tired of this math's.

There is nothing we are going to do with this small performance, this was what we did in the Afcon last time, the same thing is happening. As for that Chelle, he should leave the club and go back probably farming, his talent will be appreciating in there because I don't know why someone will go to a big place like Fifa organized match and he was angry that he saw someone use Vodoo. Why does things only work on Nigeria but doesn't work in other western regions, we need to stop these behavior.

[GeorgeJohn]

I don't like the way we blame Nigeria team over their loss in Dr Congo match, we should know that gambling is something that may change at any time and the Dr Congo defeated Cameroon and there is every possibility for them to defeat Cameroon to have the opportunity to defeat any country in Africa by come across them that is why whenever we are discussing about gambling I do let people know that they should not underestimate any team because the thing that I did not believe that we win in match at the end there are the one that defeat so let us consider the game as normal thing that happened in matches

[Stable090]

I don't like the way we blame Nigeria team over their loss in Dr Congo match,

If we don’t blame the Nigeria team, then who are we suppose to blame? From the beginning of the tournament the super eagles performance has been poor, that’s why they have to play the playoff. With the group which the super eagles were in, they are suppose to be at the top of the table, but super eagles were not just performing well, and South Africa took over the first position from the super eagles.

Just see the kind of players the Nigeria team is having, I don’t even know maybe those players doesn’t want to play for there country, because we all can see how they are always playing badly whenever they are playing for their country, just few among them do play well. I don’t know what’s special about D.R Congo that the super eagles cant win. The super eagles couldn’t make it to the World Cup, Congrat to the countries that got qualified.

[Zigabel]

When I first saw this post match comment from the coach, I just taught to why he would even go as far as saying such silly comments because let's take the penalty kicks aside, Congo for me deserved the win more than Nigeria, I mean they played with so much will and need to win it and also coupled with the fact that they actually scored twice of which all were cancelled and Nigeria on the other hand struggled to even make or create any good chances through out the match.

The game was such a heated one, Nigeria didn't play well actually, they were not deserving of wining and so as it happened this way that they lost, it is a balanced one, I'm not surprised at what Nigerian said and to come up with all of the complain after the end of the game, they actually do find who to blame too often whenever it has gone wrong but if it went right, they will also not want to accord accolades as supposed. Congo were playing like a team who really did aimed at wining, but the Nigerian side on the other hand were playing as though they already won the game and need not stress so much any longer and this game was one which their qualification was dependent upon. Nigeria will have to try next time and if they play well, they will qualify and going by their performance through this qualification phase, i doubt if they would have done so much in the world cup.

[Donneski]

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.

This is one of the most clueless post-match reactions I've seen from manager after his team were outclassed if this is actually true. I know the Super Eagles coach is probably trying to play a smart one on Nigerian fans by driving the blame away from himself with superstitious claims. Whether DR Congo had any form of vodoo with them or not during the penalty shoot-out, the truth is is the DR Congo team were unarguably the best team on the pitch last night and rightly merited their qualification to the next round
 

[Franctoshi]

No way in modern football a real manager should be throwing around Voodoo talk like this especially after a tight match like this one. I watched the highlights and it does not suggest any form of Voodoo. In fact if there was one they would have applied it during the game and not wait until it was penalty shootouts. Also if it was Voodoo their team players would not have lose two penalty kicks to Nwabali's save. It would have appeared like a fire to him or a storm yet he said two good shots. But what was this man thinking before when he did not allow our two great stars Osimhen and Lookman to play the penalties. Was he thinking he could make history without using Osimhen and Lookman and you expected it to go in favor of the super eagle players

The Voodoo seem more active during the penalty shootout time than in an on going match, because here during the match, you have the ability to manipulate the ability of only one individual player or the keeper in action, and especially when one else's mistake in that penalty shootout can decide the entire match. But I doubt the use of Voodoo in Morden day football, and FIFA will have to say about it, if one is caught openly in such action.

[Roseline492]

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.

They should sack him since he could not qualify the world cup which was the main mandate of bringing him. He was employed to qualify the World Cup yet he couldn't so what is the reason of keeping him again. He is just bringing different excuses for the Super Eagles down fall. Dr. Congo won Nigeria Football Team to qualify in the World Cup, it is a very big disgrace. Those Countries like South Africa and Niger Republic would be very happy because they don't want Nigeria to qualify in the World Cup. Victor Osimhen is ashamed because he is an renowned person in the international football and he is doing well internationally but the club or the country that he came from could not qualify in the world cup. That is a very big shame.

From this act of his, the management should replace him as soon as possible because with this accusation he has keep the national team on a mockery because they would began to see them as people who looks for unnecessary reason to create a time wasting impression. If it was done while they were playing penalty how come they also miss some of there penalty and secondly if voodoo was there, on the first half they would have giving super eagles more than 10 goals, everybody saw that it was an innocent match that played without hidden anything that is above the physical, it was a sad lost.

[TopT3ns]

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.

They should sack him since he could not qualify the world cup which was the main mandate of bringing him. He was employed to qualify the World Cup yet he couldn't so what is the reason of keeping him again. He is just bringing different excuses for the Super Eagles down fall. Dr. Congo won Nigeria Football Team to qualify in the World Cup, it is a very big disgrace. Those Countries like South Africa and Niger Republic would be very happy because they don't want Nigeria to qualify in the World Cup. Victor Osimhen is ashamed because he is an renowned person in the international football and he is doing well internationally but the club or the country that he came from could not qualify in the world cup. That is a very big shame.

From this act of his, the management should replace him as soon as possible because with this accusation he has keep the national team on a mockery because they would began to see them as people who looks for unnecessary reason to create a time wasting impression. If it was done while they were playing penalty how come they also miss some of there penalty and secondly if voodoo was there, on the first half they would have giving super eagles more than 10 goals, everybody saw that it was an innocent match that played without hidden anything that is above the physical, it was a sad lost.

Such resulting actions which create din like this inevitably translate to a powerful desire to get a conclusive resolution, because we will desire to defend the honour of a diligent team. With vague excuses surfacing it is simple to give the appearance that the field performance is an offloading to other activities. The lack of decreed penalties is not a storey that is difficult to prove, but rather a consequence of an unsuccessful execution. This experience can prove that we must base our judgement on what really occurred on the field so that we might have a clear judgement.

[Smartvirus]

Such a lame excuse for failure. Even without having to look at how poorly the team performed in the entire game, I would recommend he be sacked for this sort of excuse to back his failure.
In this 21stcentury and man is still blaming his incompetence on voodoo, that’s really funny.

Dr. Congo indeed did save Nigeria the embarrassment of advancing to the intercontinental playoff. They wouldn’t have been the best team to represent Africa in this, they underperformed and deserved to have been eliminated along with its incompetent coach and a lame excuse.

[Adbitco]

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.

And here I was thinking he was injured that's why the coach removed him, I couldn't say anything about it because I stopped watching around 15 minutes when my attention means needed fur something important and I left without even my phone with me. I wonder why the coach made the kind of substitutions he made, this was a match that Nigeria was the clear favourites but they blew that chance up. Maybe this is exactly what you get when you underestimate your opponent.

[Johnlomape]

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.

Someone should tell me this is a joke and I am surprised how he want the Nigerian fans that has been anticipating for a win from the team that ends up losing to Dr Congo because he saw someone using a black magic to reduce the odd of his club winning. Even though this might be true, there is no way people can scientifically believe this crap.

Mr coach has to admit that he lost the match without adding a platebof excuse that people were using black magic against his team that had lead them to lose the match. Time flies quickly and very soon people will forget how the Nigerian football team lost the match to Dr Congo.

[Berry2d]

I don't like the way we blame Nigeria team over their loss in Dr Congo match, we should know that gambling is something that may change at any time and the Dr Congo defeated Cameroon and there is every possibility for them to defeat Cameroon to have the opportunity to defeat any country in Africa by come across them that is why whenever we are discussing about gambling I do let people know that they should not underestimate any team because the thing that I did not believe that we win in match at the end there are the one that defeat so let us consider the game as normal thing that happened in matches

For the fact that DR congo  team defeated Cameroon never guarantee winning against the super eagles of Nigeria because the super eagles are know march for Cameroon ranging from players quality, ranking and team performance in the tournament. If not for the fact that one can not identify the root cause of the super eagles unpredictable weakness and poor performance, i don't think any team in Africa can stand the quality of the Nigerian team in all ramifications. Yes they won the game but it was an unpredictable and unimaginable result that surfaced last night