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

[Jessie2121]

Samuel Chukwueze is been cooked, insulted, threatened and some false allegations has been made about him by angry Nigerian fans because he missed the penalty that would have made Nigeria take the lead because the Moroccan player before him had already missed.
I think Samuel Chukwueze was very nonchalant taking the penalty, he was chewing gum and the run up to taking the penalty was too nonchalant, Leo Messi has had that type of penalty against France in the World Cup finals but that is Messi.
Although I did not like Samuel Chukwueze penalty he does not deserve what the fans are doing to him.

He missed the penalty so what? See we Nigerians we have a way of making things that doesn't matter to be more important but in a stupid way, some persons have turned this whole thing to be a tribal case, insults and other things are valid but calling him Igbo this and that doesn't make sense. Fine the player was so casual about the whole thing but he's not the first to miss a penalty even Messi and Ronaldo have their moment and no one rained curses on them or even call on their tribe, seriously we Nigerians we are not helping matters.

[Abdulzuruku01]

What happened to Super Eagles yesterday in their match with Morocco should teach them a lesson and at the same time other clubs and countries to take their trainings and competence a responsibility and be well fitted for any conditions of a match, it's such a pity that as good as the Super Eagles are, they are not competent in playing penalty kick, this should be to the next area of focus they are to concentrate on to see that they can all deliver even at that in case of next time.

The Super Eagles played to their best proving they're well fitted, honestly Few teams could've maintained such pressure like they did yesterday. They had poor officiating the referee wasn't in their side but in Morocco side, see the unnecessary fouls were given to Morocco whenever Super Eagles tried to attacked, just because Morocco is the hosting team.

When I saw that the referee was from Ghana, I knew the Super Eagles would struggle in that match and another thing that contributed to the Super Eagles weakness was the crowd from the Moroccans, Super Eagles had just a few fans in the stadium, and despite that they still maintained all the pressure and played to the final minutes without conceding a single goal.

For the penalty kick you're right. I wasn't happy with the way they played it honestly, they didn't played with confidence and the penalty was our only hope.

 

[Coyster]

Runner-up in the last AFCON and knocked out this time in the semis, with a chance of clinching third place in the tournament. It is not terrible stats, but with the quality we have at our disposal we should be doing more.

I was confident that we'd go all the way this time around and maybe that is why the defeat hurt me so much, but there is only one way to go from here and that is forward. I don't like crying over spilt milk, neither do i criticize players for too long, that is not so good. At the end of the day footballers are humans, you can criticize them, but don't prolong it for days, weeks and so on. God bless the Super Eagles, God bless Nigeria, we hope for better next time.

[MorganaX]

What happened to Super Eagles yesterday in their match with Morocco should teach them a lesson and at the same time other clubs and countries to take their trainings and competence a responsibility and be well fitted for any conditions of a match, it's such a pity that as good as the Super Eagles are, they are not competent in playing penalty kick, this should be to the next area of focus they are to concentrate on to see that they can all deliver even at that in case of next time.

The Super Eagles played to their best proving they're well fitted, honestly Few teams could've maintained such pressure like they did yesterday. They had poor officiating the referee wasn't in their side but in Morocco side, see the unnecessary fouls were given to Morocco whenever Super Eagles tried to attacked, just because Morocco is the hosting team.

When I saw that the referee was from Ghana, I knew the Super Eagles would struggle in that match and another thing that contributed to the Super Eagles weakness was the crowd from the Moroccans, Super Eagles had just a few fans in the stadium, and despite that they still maintained all the pressure and played to the final minutes without conceding a single goal.

For the penalty kick you're right. I wasn't happy with the way they played it honestly, they didn't played with confidence and the penalty was our only hope.

 

It was clear that the Moroccan where the better team as they tend to play very well and we saw how they put much pressure on the Nigerians, the super Eagles to be precise. Well it has ended and they are going through the final to face Senegal whom have also played very well in this AFCON, so we are not going to bring them down, as they will also come up to play the Morocco's too.
The Morocco's are the better team to win the AFCON and it is clearly seen from how they are playing. Well the super Eagles did there best, but it never changed anything from them, to win against Morocco.

[Wakate]

<...>

This match is not going to be easy at all and Nigeria playing with Morroco because Morroco is playing at their home and for Nigeria to go to Morroco to beat them their is not going to be easy. Nigeria is not playing with Tunisia or other countries with small teams that can be very easy for them to beat. I have no smooth expectation for this match because it is not going to be easy.

No matter how tough is the match, one person most win, I'm not bothered if Morocco will win or Nigerian will win Morocco, but what we know is that one team most win and one team most leave

I knew the super eagle is going lost although I hoped for the opposite to happen but nothing happens.
A big congratulations to Morroco for their skill legs to have win in the penalty. This was unexpected but we have to admit and accept the outcome of the match. Some people were arguing that the referee was in side of Morocco which should not be our business.

[Pjcr7]

Finally, Senegal has finally scored after several attempts on goal, they have finally broke the Egyptian defence and open the scoring. Senegal to win and Nigeria to win as well to make up my day. If this happens, I will so enjoy the finals. Seriously, this is not the Egyptian team we used to know, the Senegalese dominated them so well in this very game.

I believe that if Nigeria had played against Egypt, then Nigeria would have won the game, but unfortunately for Nigeria, they will play against Morocco in a few days, which is the most difficult national team in this tournament. It's not very difficult for Nigeria to win, especially since the Nigerian national team has been one of the ones that has surprised me a lot and they have many skillful players who can make a big difference in today's game. I didn't bet on this game and I won't watch it because I'll be watching the Arsenal game.

True, they might have won and at the same time they might not too because football sometimes can be funny, even Senegal that is another strong side still found it difficult in breaking down the defence of Egypt so it sometimes doesn't go the way we think. We played against Morocco and almost didn't play anything, could we have done better against Senegal if we had eliminated Morocco, that's another thing again because I still maintain that Senegal is another strong side, for me it's better we don't go into the finals instead of going into the finals only to lose just like the last edition.

[rachael9385]

Samuel Chukwueze is been cooked, insulted, threatened and some false allegations has been made about him by angry Nigerian fans because he missed the penalty that would have made Nigeria take the lead because the Moroccan player before him had already missed.
I think Samuel Chukwueze was very nonchalant taking the penalty, he was chewing gum and the run up to taking the penalty was too nonchalant, Leo Messi has had that type of penalty against France in the World Cup finals but that is Messi.
Although I did not like Samuel Chukwueze penalty he does not deserve what the fans are doing to him.

He missed the penalty so what? See we Nigerians we have a way of making things that doesn't matter to be more important but in a stupid way, some persons have turned this whole thing to be a tribal case, insults and other things are valid but calling him Igbo this and that doesn't make sense. Fine the player was so casual about the whole thing but he's not the first to miss a penalty even Messi and Ronaldo have their moment and no one rained curses on them or even call on their tribe, seriously we Nigerians we are not helping matters.

it is not a big deal but you cannot blame people for reacting the way they are because that was an important game for Nigeria. chukuweze isn't a junior player, before he was selected by the coach to play that penalty means that they trusted him to deliver but he did ended up disappointing. Did you watch how he played that penalty kick? did you notice how he did it with zero energy? he played like he was forced to

[Wakate]

Nigeria has everything needed to claim this trophy, even beyond winning Morrocco, despite the fact that skipper Ndidi was suspended, we still have Bruno Onyemaechi as a capable replacement. So, I'm rooting for them to secure a win come 8PM.

If Nigeria has everything needed to win the match, so why were they not able to win during penalty against Morroco?
The super eagle has lost so many matches through penalties and I don't know what has become our problem. Instead of playing and becoming better by the day, we stood at the monetary aspect that would have been the second option after their victory.

[Makus]

Nigeria has everything needed to claim this trophy, even beyond winning Morrocco, despite the fact that skipper Ndidi was suspended, we still have Bruno Onyemaechi as a capable replacement. So, I'm rooting for them to secure a win come 8PM.

If Nigeria has everything needed to win the match, so why were they not able to win during penalty against Morroco?
The super eagle has lost so many matches through penalties and I don't know what has become our problem. Instead of playing and becoming better by the day, we stood at the monetary aspect that would have been the second option after their victory.

Why everyone keeps blaming the refreee and chukwueze for some certain things my main issue isn't with them but the coach is the person I'm going to blame for how everything turned out. first of all, why would he bench players that could actually put in efforts and why did he substitute osimen for another player just few minutes left to 90 minutes, if he had played that penalty kick the super eagles would have had a chance of winning. A lot of things went wrong in that game and these things would have been avoided easily

[Smartvirus]

If Nigeria has everything needed to win the match, so why were they not able to win during penalty against Morroco?
The super eagle has lost so many matches through penalties and I don't know what has become our problem. Instead of playing and becoming better by the day, we stood at the monetary aspect that would have been the second option after their victory.

They didn’t play with the same intensity they played against Algeria. Come on, Algeria isn’t exactly a bad performing te neither would I compare them with Morocco but, these two teams played with so much fear for each other and Nigeria were actually too scared of conceiving, making several passes that got intercepted or never found its way to the intended and they didn’t make much attempts on target.
It was more of Morocco and in the penalties, the coach tried to utilize fresh legs and those fresh legs got the Super Eagles caught in a net.

[EL MOHA]

The Morocco's are the better team to win the AFCON and it is clearly seen from how they are playing. Well the super Eagles did there best, but it never changed anything from them, to win against Morocco.

How did you come up with the notion that they the better team suited to win this AFCON? For me they are exceptional but right from the start of the tournament i actually placed them in the same class of a team as Senegal and with been the Host going to be an advantage again in the final I still think Senegal will be a great threat to them. Morocco winning this tournament will be a testament of their long build as a nation for over 5 years now and not just something that happens a forth night ago.

Many Nigerians have been angry but for the first time I support this Nigeria team even after losing because I see that Eric Chelle has actually build such a remarkable team here that if the chemistry can be kept and improved like the two finalists then we will be back as a top footballing nation again, sadly some players will be leaving the national team by then.

The super eagle has lost so many matches through penalties and I don't know what has become our problem. Instead of playing and becoming better by the day, we stood at the monetary aspect that would have been the second option after their victory.

For me it’s the reluctancy of senior and top players refusing to take penalties with the fear of missing and be castigated and also the manager definitely got the penalty takers arrangement wrong again although I think it was a nonchalant decision by Chukwueze that still cost us this

[Nightwatchmare]

What happened to Super Eagles yesterday in their match with Morocco should teach them a lesson and at the same time other clubs and countries to take their trainings and competence a responsibility and be well fitted for any conditions of a match, it's such a pity that as good as the Super Eagles are, they are not competent in playing penalty kick, this should be to the next area of focus they are to concentrate on to see that they can all deliver even at that in case of next time.

It is obvious the super eagles of Nigeria do not know how to play a penalty shootout because this is the second time the super eagles of Nigeria have lost an important game because they could not play good penalties. After Dr Congo won the super eagles of Nigeria in the world cup qualifiers playoffs through a penalty shootout, i thought the super eagles manager would train the super eagles of Nigeria how to play penalties. But with what i saw yesterday from the super eagles of Nigeria, they did not work on how to play penalties. I am still in pain that the super eagles of Nigeria could not make it to the Afcon finals, and i do not know if i can watch the 2 matches that are remaining in the Afcon tournament.

[Barikui1]

i thought the super eagles manager would train the super eagles of Nigeria how to play penalties. But with what i saw yesterday from the super eagles of Nigeria, they did not work on how to play penalties. I am still in pain that the super eagles of Nigeria could not make it to the Afcon finals, and i do not know if i can watch the 2 matches that are remaining in the Afcon tournament.

But are you being serious with this, these are professional for Christ sake, they are not under 17 that should be taught on how to play a penalty or how to strike the ball, so I can't even imagine that they should be taught on how to score a penalty.
What I did expected you to say is that they should have done some practice, just in case it went to penalty shootout, not teaching them how to strike a ball into the net, that is why I am seriously pissed off with chukwueze, with the I don't care penalty that he played.
Additional, what has happen, has happened, so it's best for we to move on from this, left for me, our African nations cup campaign is over. I am no longer interested in watching either the finals or even our third place match.

[tbterryboy]

But why would the AFCON officiating team make such choice of referees in such crucial match. When the match started the Moroccan team hit down allot of Nigerian team players but there was no free kicks or whistle blowing from.the beginning before the Nigerian team where able to balance themselves properly in the field and stood up against the Moroccans. And immediately the refree started blowing  unnecessarily.  Most of those whistles he blew was just uncalled for.

In last few years, despite using technology and having enough sources, referees' performance is in decline in quality which is always creating so many controversies throughout events, many decisions were not as they needed to be done, many players faced wrong cards indeed.

AFCON officials surely need to be ready for serious work on this aspect because if they fail, things are going to be more problematic for them in near future, professionalism is always important and having good quality and being neutral officials can make this event more entertaining for the fans, in semifinal between Nigeria vs Morocco many decisions made things unnecessarily problematic which was surely against the sportsmanship.

[Sticky Bomb]

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.

I don't know how you grade uncommon performance, but their display on the pitch was average to me. I agree that lack of fans and the biased referee contributed to their poor performance but hey, that semi-finals was their worst performance in that competition. I am not referring to the penalty shootout because that is a luck driven outcome.

I agree with you that coach Chelle should be retained. He has shown good promise within 12 months of being in charge and the boys performances improved considerably, he would definitely do much better in the future.

[Jessie2121]

Samuel Chukwueze is been cooked, insulted, threatened and some false allegations has been made about him by angry Nigerian fans because he missed the penalty that would have made Nigeria take the lead because the Moroccan player before him had already missed.
I think Samuel Chukwueze was very nonchalant taking the penalty, he was chewing gum and the run up to taking the penalty was too nonchalant, Leo Messi has had that type of penalty against France in the World Cup finals but that is Messi.
Although I did not like Samuel Chukwueze penalty he does not deserve what the fans are doing to him.

He missed the penalty so what? See we Nigerians we have a way of making things that doesn't matter to be more important but in a stupid way, some persons have turned this whole thing to be a tribal case, insults and other things are valid but calling him Igbo this and that doesn't make sense. Fine the player was so casual about the whole thing but he's not the first to miss a penalty even Messi and Ronaldo have their moment and no one rained curses on them or even call on their tribe, seriously we Nigerians we are not helping matters.

it is not a big deal but you cannot blame people for reacting the way they are because that was an important game for Nigeria. chukuweze isn't a junior player, before he was selected by the coach to play that penalty means that they trusted him to deliver but he did ended up disappointing. Did you watch how he played that penalty kick? did you notice how he did it with zero energy? he played like he was forced to

We cannot blame the emotions and how the supporters react but yet again these people has taken it too far as to making the whole thing to be all about tribe, the country is in a bad shape concerning religion and where you're from and all that but making this particular issue to be part of the country's problem is not needed, fine he missed the golden chance so why are many calling out his tribe that the are the problem of Nigeria and it won't be well with the Igbos and I hear a voice note of someone laying a curse on him and his family, common brother, some persons need to be taken to any mental institution. With all the insults that is going on I think those on X are the cause and if care is not taken it could be political, no carry anything play for Nigeria if not before you know it has gotten serious and we're fighting against it.

[SatoPrincess]

They didn’t play with the same intensity they played against Algeria. Come on, Algeria isn’t exactly a bad performing te neither would I compare them with Morocco but, these two teams played with so much fear for each other and Nigeria were actually too scared of conceiving, making several passes that got intercepted or never found its way to the intended and they didn’t make much attempts on target.
It was more of Morocco and in the penalties, the coach tried to utilize fresh legs and those fresh legs got the Super Eagles caught in a net.

The Super Eagles tried but Morocco had anticipated our game plan. They had players on Osimhen and Lookman who are our key players so we couldn’t have any opportunity to attack. I expected the manager and the technical team to come up with a new strategy in the second half but unfortunately they didn’t have a backup plan.

[Hardyrobust]

We cannot blame the emotions and how the supporters react but yet again these people has taken it too far as to making the whole thing to be all about tribe, the country is in a bad shape concerning religion and where you're from and all that but making this particular issue to be part of the country's problem is not needed, fine he missed the golden chance so why are many calling out his tribe that the are the problem of Nigeria and it won't be well with the Igbos and I hear a voice note of someone laying a curse on him and his family, common brother, some persons need to be taken to any mental institution. With all the insults that is going on I think those on X are the cause and if care is not taken it could be political, no carry anything play for Nigeria if not before you know it has gotten serious and we're fighting against it.

some people can be very foolish at times even top strikers do miss penalty. It is only those that knows nothing about football will be making such nonsense statement. The super eagles did there best, so it will be wrong to begin to blame a particular player for missing penalty. It simply means we are appreciating all the effort they have put in , before they got to that far. What they are supposed to do is to encourage them. To me the super eagles really surprised me and it will be wrong for anyone to begin to bring tribe and religion into sports.

[Majestic-milf]

 Nigeria did all they could against Morocco. As far as I'm concerned,  they didn't play like they did against Algeria, all of them were playing less than average football, even the Moroccans were not that sure of how to handle the Super Eagles for fear that the Nigerians won't take them unawares like they did against Algeria.
Although video footage showed how uncomfortable the host made the Super Eagles,  I feel that Nigeria should have done better than they did because if you tell me that stadium was filled up with mostly the Moroccans, I'd agree and say that the fact that not much of Nigerians where there to support their people also killed their morale but again, this is something we should have expected because that was the same thing that happened last time against Ivory Coast.

[Cossyblack]

He missed the penalty so what? See we Nigerians we have a way of making things that doesn't matter to be more important but in a stupid way, some persons have turned this whole thing to be a tribal case, insults and other things are valid but calling him Igbo this and that doesn't make sense. Fine the player was so casual about the whole thing but he's not the first to miss a penalty even Messi and Ronaldo have their moment and no one rained curses on them or even call on their tribe, seriously we Nigerians we are not helping matters.

We have lost and you better move on. Nigeria isn't the first country that have loss in a penalty shootout so that shouldn't be a big deal. We played as a United team irrespective of tribe but the game was lost and nobody should be blamed for that. We shouldn't allow our emotions to take control of us because in football anything can happen. Samuel Chukwueze shouldn't be crucify for missing that penalty as players are not above mistakes.