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

[Zackz5000]

Looking at this one would think the guy that pulled the shirt was the committing the foul, the Real Madrid man Diaz was seen pulling the shirt of Bassey which was supposed to be a foul against Morocco but no, the referee blew and gave a foul against Nigeria and to rob insult upon injury, he gave Bassey a yellow card. I guess the yellow card was for, why must you fall after being fouled, next time don't fall when you are fouled. That's one of the decisions that marvelled me last night and because of this senseless yellow card, Bassey will not be eligible to play in the third place match again against Egypt on Saturday. The referee was not totally fair in his judgement and he gave a lot of advantage to Morocco, this was what Nigerians were talking about having a Ghanian referee to officiate their match.

This happens to be one of the poor officiating i have seen from a referee for a long time now in football, it is sad that the African games are still at this level of poor officiating, his officiating made it obvious that at some point he had some sentiments and could not contain it enough that it was obvious on several occasions

Part of the things that makes you a professional is that you're able to check out all the factors that you're going to experience in a game and be prepared to face it straight up so you don't end up giving excuses when the game eventually goes the way you suspected it would. As for me, all this blames on poor officiating is just medicine after death because there's no single way you're going to play against the host nation and think the slightest that the officiating and every other factor is going to favour you. There's no just way.

Good and fine, we accept the the officiating was awful but then, you managed to keep it cool till the penalty shoot out, do you need the referree to side you in a penalty shootout? All you need do is take your chances at the time the opportunity presented itself and we failed woefully in doing so. We have a mentality problem and till we fix that, we can only go close to winning major trophy and will still fail.

In my own honest opinion,  Nigeria really gave their best in this AFCON and are really impressive and In this particular game, they gave their best also and are able to play well for 120 minutes but the penalty shootout didn't just work in their favour and this same shootout was what cost us the world cup ticket, I thought the team would have worked on this before this time but it's obvious there's no improvement from the previous shootout with DR CONGO in the world cup qualification campaign and now we have no choice but to try again

The Super Eagles did their best i must say this is a team that played unbeaten from the group stage till they the semi final, Morocco is has a better team last time world cup Morocco went far among the other African countries so we encourage them there are other countries who were eliminated in the group stage if not Chukueze played a very bad penalty i believe that the Super Eagles would book a spot in rbr final, the Super Eagles don't have good penalty takers they should work on this incase we found our self in another penalty shot out.

[Jaycoinz]

It's unfortunate that Super Eagles has disappoint us the second time, after all the trust we put on them. Sometimes we shouldn't conclude for a match that hasn't been played yet because I could remember the way Nigerians were jubilating after Senegal won against Egypt they were sure that Super Eagles would play in the final with Senegal, I was looking at them because football is unpredictable and the Super Eagles was so confident that they would be the winner forgetting that they playing with an experience county so that is what hinder the Eagles.

I’m sorry the Super Eagles disappointed you guys, unfortunately it rained on you guys heavily the second time, you could’ve been more cautious with your support for the Super Eagles, Well I have a piece of advice for you, you should be careful how you support the Nigerian Super Eagles, they’re made for serving breakfast, and they will Continue dishing disappointment, right now I believe they are in an unbelievable streak of serving disappointment.

When I saw the Super Eagles beat Mozambique 4 nil, I immediately knew they were cooking Breakfast to dish out to their Supporters, because I’ve never seen them beat a team 4 nil.

Senegal is a strong team, Morocco is a strong team, and they’re tactically stronger compared to the Nigerian Super Eagles, I was actually laughing when Super Eagles fans were getting carried away, they believed they will beat Morroco on home soil, because they beat Mozambique an inferior team.

Now I’m happy they’ve lost everyone is disappointed, I’m having the last laugh in this Thread.

Hey bro! It's nothing like that. We aren't even inferior, it's just football, anyone can win or lose. Hope you know that the defending champions, Ivory Coast was eliminated in the quarter finals by another team. So any team can actually win. Though the Moroccan players were better than us last night, in tackles, marking, team play and everything. We were only lucky we had a nice defence, if not, they would have won in Normal time. They played better, they deserved the winning and they won in penalties.

Don't also forget that the Nigerian team also won countries before we got there. We should give them some appluad for getting there. But football will always happen, and the host nation won, they were lucky too

Of course, it's a football game which is satting that one of them must be eliminated so there's no need to laughed at the Super Eagles, just that fans were too carried away by Super Eagles performance in the early stage but just that the countries that qualify for semifinals were too strong for Super Eagles to handle. Well, I think this will be a very lesson for fans because game of football is not something you can conclude essentially with a strong opponent like Morocco, already I knew that Morocco would win if the game entered penalty because they have good players that knows penalty than us, so there's no how we can kill ourselves it has happened already.

You knew shit! Sorry to my friend but I don't think any one could guess the winner of a penalty shoot out, I mean there is a reason why the game of penalty is highly associated with the term "LUCK" and this is because you can hardly guess any winner from the any of the teams because even the best of teams can still lose the game of penalty and history have proven this theory to be true for many occasions and I also feel on a neutral ground it would be very hard for morroco to come out victorious.

[Kelward]

I know we have a lot of Nigerian guys here on the forum so I’d just like to wish you all good luck in the seki final against Morocco tonight.

I will be watching Senegal vs Egypt and cheering on my boy Salah.

Thanks so much for your support, super eagle really try but unfortunately that is how games used to be. I could not be able to watch the game completely because I will not be happy if it end the way it ended, I just wake up in the middle of night to check the scores, from there my tension calm down because if I could watch it to see that we are eliminated, I will not be able to sleep throughout yesterday, but since I choose to love myself more than anything that was why I was able to prevent myself from that action. I could not be able to blame our superheroes because they did more than I expect it, and I'm still proud of them and I'm happy to welcome them back home for representing us well.

Thanks to every none Nigerians who supported the super eagles to win but unfortunately they didn't, they gave their best but it wasn't good enough to take them to the final. I watched the game until the penalty shootouts and when the penalties were dragging too far I couldn't watch anymore because I didn't want the anticipation for the super eagles to win to affect me negatively. I stopped watching and later checked the scores to see that the Moroccan, team later won the match. Any games that reached penalty stage means that the teams are paired so I won't call super eagles inferior because they lost, I'm still cheering them to win the third place match against Egypt.

[Fiatless]

Thanks to every none Nigerians who supported the super eagles to win but unfortunately they didn't, they gave their best but it wasn't good enough to take them to the final. I watched the game until the penalty shootouts and when the penalties were dragging too far I couldn't watch anymore because I didn't want the anticipation for the super eagles to win to affect me negatively. I stopped watching and later checked the scores to see that the Moroccan, team later won the match. Any games that reached penalty stage means that the teams are paired so I won't call super eagles inferior because they lost, I'm still cheering them to win the third place match against Egypt.

I am very proud of the Super Eagles for that uncommon display yesterday.  They played against one of the best sides not just in Africa but in the entire world. This Moroccan squad was the first African team to play in the World Cup semi-finals. The Super Eagles also played against the fans and the partially biased central referee. Coach Chelle should be retained because there are better days ahead.

[Roseline492]

You mean the sub?, there shouldn't be blame because all his substitutes are all correct and that's why nobody had said anything about those substitute, he didn't take any action without importance, he started changing from 83 minutes, removing Onyedika and putting Simon, there was no other to be substituted other than those players and all the ones in there place performed well, it might be that you didn't like the removing of Osimhen but after the place he nearly had an injury his performance declined and our attacks began to give room for the opposition defense, so from there Onuachu got in.

I agree with you, Eric Chelle made the changes that he is supposed to make at the right time, trust me the super Eagles tried, they played against a Moroccan team that were tactically strong in their technique, psychologically in that game we where defeated, they had more attacking pressure more than the Eagles, we enjoyed that kind dominance against Algeria, but in our own turn we where strong enough to hold on till penalty shootouts, and in penalties, any team can win.

If I was the one that made those promise to them, even if they could not fulfill why I should give them the money but I will give them all or half of it because all the things they individually known right the beginning of there soccer was utilized to bring a happy face to the country but the country they were against was extreme in performance but still super eagles did not give up to be scored so there defending last in all of the game including the extra time so actually for that we appreciate and encouraged them to be in this form from this AFCON till 2031 the next world Cup and more AFCON.

[snipie]

I am very proud of the Super Eagles for that uncommon display yesterday.  They played against one of the best sides not just in Africa but in the entire world. This Moroccan squad was the first African team to play in the World Cup semi-finals. The Super Eagles also played against the fans and the partially biased central referee. Coach Chelle should be retained because there are better days ahead.

We blame referees all the time but Nigeria barely made serious attempts and missed penalties. The Super Eagles players weren't playing as best as they can at all. In the other hand I wonder why Morocco wasn't able to score a goal before penalties. They made many attempts which wasn't successful.
Morocco proved again that they are one of the best teams in Africa. No wonder they will face Senegal in the final match. Meanwhile Nigeria have to finish this competition third at least.

[Taricoins]

Thanks to every none Nigerians who supported the super eagles to win but unfortunately they didn't, they gave their best but it wasn't good enough to take them to the final. I watched the game until the penalty shootouts and when the penalties were dragging too far I couldn't watch anymore because I didn't want the anticipation for the super eagles to win to affect me negatively. I stopped watching and later checked the scores to see that the Moroccan, team later won the match. Any games that reached penalty stage means that the teams are paired so I won't call super eagles inferior because they lost, I'm still cheering them to win the third place match against Egypt.

I am very proud of the Super Eagles for that uncommon display yesterday.  They played against one of the best sides not just in Africa but in the entire world. This Moroccan squad was the first African team to play in the World Cup semi-finals. The Super Eagles also played against the fans and the partially biased central referee. Coach Chelle should be retained because there are better days ahead.

Aside for that especially bad performance from the Nigerian team in there match against Morocco, they did give us some unexpected and beautiful performance in there previous matches and like you said, Morocco is not a small team in the world football, so drawing with them to penalty shootouts is not a casual thing. But it won't be nice of me not to give accolade to Iwobi and Calvin Bassey, imagine Iwobi ranked first in the tournaments number of passes into the oppositions third, and 46 defense splitting passes, that's a wonderful stat.

[Adbitco]

Everyone was surprised about the substitution he made when it was almost certain that we are going into the penalties he shouldn't have taken out those players that way. Being exhausted doesn't mean you won't kick the penalty well enough and the players will have a bit of rest before the penalties so the changes was not necessary unless the players themselves choose to be taken out and not participate in the penalties. Osimhen is well known penalty taker for his team, same as Lookman. If they had been part of the penalty the takers then it would be better because their conversion rate is higher and their experience and exposure to penalties will be helpful to the team. Akor also is another player that can take penalties but am not seeing any of them there.

The players did well but the changes were poor and the approach to the penalties is poor especially that of Chukwueze, his reaction was so poor and I was asking myself what is he trying to do there. Trying to be nonchalant looks more stupid when you don't score. It's a very poor penalty from him it lacks power and it was easy for the goalkeeper to predict. I am sure non of those players that gave their best in the match will kick a penalty like that after all the efforts.

You can't blame the coach entirely for the substitution, Osimhen had a knock already and he tried playing with it up till that moment, what If he was the one that requested he be taken off? What he knows his not in the right frame of mind to take the penalty and instead opted to be taken off? We watching from the TV can never see everything that's going on on the pitch, we only see what the camera shows us, I think the coach knows well not to remove his players if they were fit to take the penalty. I know that players do have conversations as to who and who will take penalties when it comes to the shootout and I guess they already discussed it. As for Chukwueze, he deserves the bashing his getting online, the way he stood for the penalty was as if he wasn't interested. It was as if he didn't care about the penalty in my opinion.

[Joeboy]

Like to say the truth I don't really know how much they paid this referee like dude was completely against the Super Eagles in yesterday match, like it Morocco rough Nigerian it's a foul against Nigerian, and Nigerian rough it's a yellow card, the referee actually killed the game before anything else like the game was not really enjoyable the only thing that interest me in that match is how the Super Eagles managed to hold them to a draw after the conspiracy, now we were actually contemplating on the penalty shootout and our goal keeper managed to save a ball and there goes the Wolf in sheep clothing chuwkueze gave the opponent goal keeper a pass in form of play penalty shootout, like yesterday was just so awful to us the football fans here in Nigeria.

Like ehn, the Referee's judgement really prove that he was against Nigeria, I literally could count the numbers of foul that was done to the Nigerian players but the Ref. waved it off without blowing, but then look at that what happened between Bassey and Brahim Diaz, it was clear that Diaz was pulling the shirt of Bassey and in an attempt to free himself from the grip he mistakenly hit Diaz in the face.... Am very sure the Ref didn't see what happened he just went on to book Bassey in order to distabilize the team, how biased is that..... Bassey was the key man and I really enjoyed how he defended against the opposition....I really would not blame Chukwueze sha the pressure was really much yesterday, and then he isn't the first player to miss a PK, top player have also missed Penalty Shootout, so let's stop blaming him....

[Sticky Bomb]

I sense some level of bias from the referee, although I expected things to be done in the home teams favor to some extent. Nigeria not conceding in this first half is pure luck, if you watched carefully, you'll see the Moroccan team pressing Nigeria so hard throughout the first half, although I like Nigerian tactical response, but I cannot deny how much we miss Ndidi in that center.

The referee is not balancing the game with how he's officiating is almost looking as though the officiating referee is doing his job in favour of the home team. Nigeria nevertheless has been showing some roughness irrespective of how the game is going. This has being the strongest match for this AFCON, the tempo is high and even in the extra halves the players are still looking agile with no show of fatigue despite the long time of play.

I see many people blaming the referee but the thing be is that, there is no way officiating can be 100% perfect. Let's leave the full time play and focus on what the players did in the penalty, that's what I'm very interested in right now. Nigeria loss and that's it but Chukwueze need is not a serious player, why would you have an over confident and cost us one good penalty that you would have taken, he did it like he wasn't paid the bonus they were promised.

Chukwueze played a very bad penalty, more like he was not serious with the kick. Beyond Chukwueze, Nigerian team had a very disappointing campaign against Morocco, I was not impressed at all with the on-field performance at all, I am a Nigerian, but judging with the performances, it was only right Morocco advanced since they seemed like a more serious team to me. I blame the referee for obvious favoring the hosts but not as much as I blame Nigerian players for a very bad performance out there yesterday.

I'm not happy that we lose the way I was shouting in ball house tonight but it's good we are out. At least I can sleep peacefully that I don't have to worry what we are going to play in the final. They raise your spirit and act like they at going to win the League but when the time comes, they act like they don't deserve it. We tried by the way but I'm not happy with the way this game ended, we had everything in our hands and we let it split out of our hands.

In that match we had nothing in our hands, Everything was taken away from us right from the first half. I was thinking the boys would play with motivation as they were given some handsome promises by a Nigerian billionaire, yet they played without passion. I pity Osimhen and Calvin Bassey the more, they gave everything in him but the boys were not having their kind of mindset in that game.

[Fiatless]

We blame referees all the time but Nigeria barely made serious attempts and missed penalties. The Super Eagles players weren't playing as best as they can at all. In the other hand I wonder why Morocco wasn't able to score a goal before penalties. They made many attempts which wasn't successful.
Morocco proved again that they are one of the best teams in Africa. No wonder they will face Senegal in the final match. Meanwhile Nigeria have to finish this competition third at least.

I would have to agree with you that the referee was not that bad. But most Nigerians are not pleased with Calvin Bassey's booking, and fans are wondering why the Moroccans never got a yellow card. However, I would have to confess that the Super Eagles created fewer chances. Which might also be a tactical decision.

Regarding your comments that Nigerian players didn't give their best, I have a different view. Everybody in the team did well, the issue was that we played against a formidable side. The third-place match wouldn't be easy.  I hope Victor Osimhen will score more goals to make him finish as the competition's highest goal scorer.

[IjawMan]

I am very proud of the Super Eagles for that uncommon display yesterday.  They played against one of the best sides not just in Africa but in the entire world. This Moroccan squad was the first African team to play in the World Cup semi-finals. The Super Eagles also played against the fans and the partially biased central referee. Coach Chelle should be retained because there are better days ahead.

We blame referees all the time but Nigeria barely made serious attempts and missed penalties. The Super Eagles players weren't playing as best as they can at all. In the other hand I wonder why Morocco wasn't able to score a goal before penalties. They made many attempts which wasn't successful.
Morocco proved again that they are one of the best teams in Africa. No wonder they will face Senegal in the final match. Meanwhile Nigeria have to finish this competition third at least.

Are you saying this as someone that did not see the match or you are cool with the officiation of the referee been a standard one that you can place parallel with officiation of matches by referees in European tournaments?  The center referee made many bad decisions. When referees begins to make decisions on the field that gives suspicion impressions from one team in a match, it can weaken the moral of that team.

What I can blame Nigeria here in that match was that they did not show enough discipline against Morocco, the super eagles showed too much respect for the Moroccans causing them to have not more 1 shot on target in the game.

CAF will have to do better with the choice of their officials this time when the finals are played, African football tournaments has to outgrown all this saga of bias and favouritism in matches.

[EluguHcman]

                                                    
I came across this tending news of Davido one of the Nigerian most famous international musician betting this huge amount of money money in the recent Nigeria and Morocco semi final AFCON match that took place yesterday.
The celebrity actually lost the huge amount of stake as Nigeria losses the match neither did they played and the game outcome came under the over 1.5 with the standard countdown to win the bet also cut it off on the 0:0 fulltime and extra time of the match.

This huge amount of stake just reminded me of the Canadian international musician and a whale bettor @ Drake way of gambling.
But there's no need for alarm or gossip because his net worth is higher than what he lost. Only that we need to treat gambling with caution.

[ejikeme24]

Nigeria played absolute rubbish yesterday, they can't even hold the ball for 20 seconds, made only 1 shots on target. They were not pressing the Morrocans, hadn't been Nigeria played the way they did against Algeria, they could have scored. But no, they decided to sit back throughout the game, when they are not even winning. What happened yesterday is just a replica of the game against Dr congo.  The only person I was proud in that squad yesterday was Calvin Bassey, that guy defended and played very well. Our wingbacks can't even cross or dribble, they lose ball anyhow. I don't know what Eric Chelle tactics was, why didn't he make a tactical change in the second half. What now annoy me the most was chukwueze, like I don't want ever see that guy wear Nigeria shirt again. He has never done anything reasonable that benefits the team , only to make noise.

You're right about that, you know their performance yesterday got me thinking that, is that how they were performing during the early stage or i's  just a sudden change? Because I stopped watching them right after they got eliminated from (FIFA WORLD CUP) but during the (afcon) I just heard they are doing absolutely well but then, I never believed that not until I had that they have reached the semi. then, I was like wow' because I never believed they would make it up to the semi considering their past performance, So then I decided to watch the semi. from what I saw I think they still remain the super eagles I used to know, no improvement nothing, nothing, I was so disappointed at them yesterday.

[PremiumcryptoHub]

Thanks so much for your support, super eagle really try but unfortunately that is how games used to be. I could not be able to watch the game completely because I will not be happy if it end the way it ended, I just wake up in the middle of night to check the scores, from there my tension calm down because if I could watch it to see that we are eliminated, I will not be able to sleep throughout yesterday, but since I choose to love myself more than anything that was why I was able to prevent myself from that action. I could not be able to blame our superheroes because they did more than I expect it, and I'm still proud of them and I'm happy to welcome them back home for representing us well.

Thanks to every none Nigerians who supported the super eagles to win but unfortunately they didn't, they gave their best but it wasn't good enough to take them to the final. I watched the game until the penalty shootouts and when the penalties were dragging too far I couldn't watch anymore because I didn't want the anticipation for the super eagles to win to affect me negatively. I stopped watching and later checked the scores to see that the Moroccan, team later won the match. Any games that reached penalty stage means that the teams are paired so I won't call super eagles inferior because they lost, I'm still cheering them to win the third place match against Egypt.

The way the Nigeria team played amazingly, I think they couldn't achieve the results that way. I actually enjoyed every game this team played, but they lost on penalties in the semi-final match against Morocco, despite playing very well. However, we hope that this team will continue their good performance, besides it was predictable that Morocco would play well because they were playing at home, so my idea they had the support of their home fans there and they were confident. Even to my knowledge, there is no doubt that this team has now become one of the best teams and everyone may have noticed that they were able to play like veterans in the AFCON semi-final match.

[7juju]

The Super Eagles did their best i must say this is a team that played unbeaten from the group stage till they the semi final, Morocco is has a better team last time world cup Morocco went far among the other African countries so we encourage them there are other countries who were eliminated in the group stage if not Chukueze played a very bad penalty i believe that the Super Eagles would book a spot in rbr final, the Super Eagles don't have good penalty takers they should work on this incase we found our self in another penalty shot out.

I am really proud of the Super Eagles for how far they came in the AFCON tournament, they gave their all and bowed out in a way that makes me feel extremely proud. Morocco didn't defeat us in the regulation time but in a penalty kick which could have gone either way. When the game got to the penalty I knew we were going to get eliminated because of what happened during the world cup qualifiers, we struggled to take penalties. My only concern was that the coach shouldn't have substituted Osimhen and Akor again when the penalty kick was close. They would have had a better penalty kick than Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi

[Livingleged]

I don’t want to say much about the match between Nigeria and Morocco but then I just have to pour out my anger as a typical Nigeria that I am. I must say that the first official didn’t do a good job lol looking at how poorly he officiated the match. Wrong calls here and there all again Nigeria still yet the boys managed to hold until 120 mins that I must commend them for.

But the penalty aspect was the annoying part I do not know why great players shy away from taking responsibility o was expecting ademola lookman to be among the penalty takers but instead it was chukwueze who just came in few moment before the final whistle.

In my opinion that referee should be investigated it was obvious that he took side from his officiating it was balanced. And if he’s found guilty of that the match should be replayed.

[Youngrebel]

No need crying over a spilled milk, the better team won which is Morocco but then i give it also to the Super Eagles of Nigeria, they did their best but it wasn't enough. Last AFCON, Nigeria reached the finals and this one they reached the semifinals so i don't really see much backwardness in the team, they just need some kind of tough orientation so that they can do better in the future. I also recognize the Nigerian team coach Eric Chille for a job well done. It's really sad that Nigeria missed out in qualifying for the world cup and also got ejected from the AFCON but this is just football, we always expect the unexpected. Kudos to Senegal and Morocco for reaching the finals, perhaps they are the best teams in Africa so their advancement to the finals is not by chance but by their efforts and determination. However, let the best team win at the finals but i have a strong feeling that the host nation Morocco will win the AFCON.

Exactly but the truth still has to be told and people's opinions be said publicly.  Who knows there might arise more stringent rules to address such poor coaching patterns in the AFCON  OR  any other match. It totally unfair how someone who is supposed to stand in for both parties makes.a.public display og been against a team.
The super eagles where full of life and energy trying to see how they could play amidst all of this but I'm sure they had yo readjust their playing pattern at least to make sure they are not into more trouble with the referee.

[Accardo]

Morocco proved again that they are one of the best teams in Africa. No wonder they will face Senegal in the final match. Meanwhile Nigeria have to finish this competition third at least.

The Super Eagles are demoralized over the loss to Morroco, Egypt is likely winning them in the third place race, they never wished for that position, so, they may not invest their all in winning the Egyptians. It was quite a good time with the Super Eagles, they did their best in this year's Afcon.

[Odusko]

Thanks to every none Nigerians who supported the super eagles to win but unfortunately they didn't, they gave their best but it wasn't good enough to take them to the final. I watched the game until the penalty shootouts and when the penalties were dragging too far I couldn't watch anymore because I didn't want the anticipation for the super eagles to win to affect me negatively. I stopped watching and later checked the scores to see that the Moroccan, team later won the match. Any games that reached penalty stage means that the teams are paired so I won't call super eagles inferior because they lost, I'm still cheering them to win the third place match against Egypt.

I am very proud of the Super Eagles for that uncommon display yesterday.  They played against one of the best sides not just in Africa but in the entire world. This Moroccan squad was the first African team to play in the World Cup semi-finals. The Super Eagles also played against the fans and the partially biased central referee. Coach Chelle should be retained because there are better days ahead.

Faith has it ways yesterday and from every point the supper eagles did incredibly well all through the tournament and for some reason penalties got us out, this is somewhat opposite of what we expected but none the less we give thanks to the super eagles for their uncommon performance all through the season.