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

[Salahmu]

It means that Nigeria is settling for something low instead of something big. Is it a big crime for these set of players in the Super Eagles to win AFCON for once. We did better in the previous one so why would third place be our target. I will not watch the match because it's not something to be proud of.

Honestly we are not all proud of this because our mind was on the position for the trophy, our coach should have skipped Chukweze from the penalty players because he was unserious on the penalty, no point in target, not strength on the ball, Nigerians was very happy of the penalty miss by Igamane because it will give eagles the rare chance but just right after Igamane the next super eagle that went next was the unserious player of the season and he restored hope to the Moroccan instead for having equal lost. The third place is not also certain for super eagles because our Captain might not play as well as bassey plus how uncommon the players will take it.

[Spaceman1000$]

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.

What the super eagles of Nigeria had in mind to achieve in the Afcon tournament was to play in the finals and lift the Afcon trophy, but since they were stopped by Morocco from reaching the Afcon finals, i do not think the super eagles of Nigeria will be able to secure third place in the Afcon tournament because their failure of not making it to the finals has weakened their zeal. I wanted the super eagles of Nigeria to win the Afcon trophy, and i was happy with the way they were performing because it made me believe the super eagles of Nigeria would win the Afcon trophy, but after the super eagles of Nigeria were knocked out by Morocco, i was deeply hurt, and i do not know if i can continue watching the Afcon tournament.

Sincerely a lot of us were expecting the super Eagles to win Morocco and progress to the finals, at least this is to compensate the fact that we did not qualify for the World Cup, so the AFCON would have been a consolation price, but unfortunately it didn't go as we all planned. However I still want to believe that the super Eagles can still pull themselves together and win Egypt for the third placement, the super Eagles did it the last time and I don't think anything can be stopping them now, although it was not entirely their plan to end up like this, but they are still among the finalists regardless.

[Odusko]

Sincerely a lot of us were expecting the super Eagles to win Morocco and progress to the finals, at least this is to compensate the fact that we did not qualify for the World Cup, so the AFCON would have been a consolation price, but unfortunately it didn't go as we all planned. However I still want to believe that the super Eagles can still pull themselves together and win Egypt for the third placement, the super Eagles did it the last time and I don't think anything can be stopping them now, although it was not entirely their plan to end up like this, but they are still among the finalists regardless.

What is most important is for them to qualify and now that it did not happen we move on to some other things now, I saw Victor Osimen leaving the camp yesterday that he was traveling and hope he will be back to be part of the match against Egypt tomorrow.

[nelson4lov]

It means that Nigeria is settling for something low instead of something big. Is it a big crime for these set of players in the Super Eagles to win AFCON for once. We did better in the previous one so why would third place be our target. I will not watch the match because it's not something to be proud of.

My afcon watch for Super Eagles was over immediately we got knocked out. I'll only watch the finals because I'll be rooting for Sadio Mane to win it since we couldn't win it. We approached that game with the mindset that we won't be able to win them and that was what happened. Only 1 clear cut chance and it was one struck from outside the penalty box.

I hope Senegal doesn't subject themselves to same mindset as they go head to head with Morocco.

[igebotz]

My afcon watch for Super Eagles was over immediately we got knocked out. I'll only watch the finals because I'll be rooting for Sadio Mane to win it since we couldn't win it. We approached that game with the mindset that we won't be able to win them and that was what happened. Only 1 clear cut chance and it was one struck from outside the penalty box.

I hope Senegal doesn't subject themselves to same mindset as they go head to head with Morocco.

Everyone acting as if we deserved to go through to the Penalty shootout - we didn't deserve anything from that game, we were dominated from the first minute, it wasn't our day and that's just football. We approached the game with a wrong mindset and paid dearly.

We have to accept that they have a better model than us and move on- they're not the Best team on the continent for nothing

[Mayor of ogba]

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.

After Nwabali saved Morocco penalty and gave the Super Eagles a chance to beat Morocco's in the penalty shootout, the Super Eagles' fans were expecting Chukwueze to score his penalty so that he would put the Super Eagles ahead in the penalty shootout, but Chukwueze messed up and played a penalty that even a 10 years old girl could stop. The Super Eagles' fans have the right to say ill words against Chukwueze because Chukwueze let everyone down, but I am not in support of the people that said Igbo are the problem we have in Nigeria.

[Joy_learns_crypto]

After Nwabali saved Morocco penalty and gave the Super Eagles a chance to beat Morocco's in the penalty shootout, the Super Eagles' fans were expecting Chukwueze to score his penalty so that he would put the Super Eagles ahead in the penalty shootout, but Chukwueze messed up and played a penalty that even a 10 years old girl could stop. The Super Eagles' fans have the right to say ill words against Chukwueze because Chukwueze let everyone down, but I am not in support of the people that said Igbo are the problem we have in Nigeria.

This is very wrong and astonishing. No the Nigerian fans don’t have any right to say ill words against Chukwueze, and no football fan have the right to say ill words against players that miss penalties.
Nigerian fans said so many ill words and Chukwueze is a human being and those words can affect him mentally, the fans said it but they don’t have any right to say it, stop supporting bullying.
In future Nigerian players will reject playing for the country because of this behavior from fans.
And if you support that fans have the right to tell Chukwueze ill words then you should not choose the ill words that they should tell him. Condemn the ill words and don’t pick which word is one that you don’t like.

[Mayor of ogba]

It means that Nigeria is settling for something low instead of something big. Is it a big crime for these set of players in the Super Eagles to win AFCON for once. We did better in the previous one so why would third place be our target. I will not watch the match because it's not something to be proud of.

My afcon watch for Super Eagles was over immediately we got knocked out. I'll only watch the finals because I'll be rooting for Sadio Mane to win it since we couldn't win it. We approached that game with the mindset that we won't be able to win them and that was what happened. Only 1 clear cut chance and it was one struck from outside the penalty box.

I hope Senegal doesn't subject themselves to same mindset as they go head to head with Morocco.

Everyone is hurt since the Super Eagles could secure a passage to the final, but even though the Super Eagles couldn't set up a final with Senegal, I will still watch the Super Eagles match with Egypt, and I will support the Super Eagles to beat Egypt so that they can finish third in this year's African Cup of Nations. Since the Super Eagles couldn't win the African Cup of Nations, I am rooting for Senegal to win it.

[Iroh]

Honestly we are not all proud of this because our mind was on the position for the trophy, our coach should have skipped Chukweze from the penalty players because he was unserious on the penalty, no point in target, not strength on the ball, Nigerians was very happy of the penalty miss by Igamane because it will give eagles the rare chance but just right after Igamane the next super eagle that went next was the unserious player of the season and he restored hope to the Moroccan instead for having equal lost. The third place is not also certain for super eagles because our Captain might not play as well as bassey plus how uncommon the players will take it.

Chukwueze is a good and talented player. The penalty shootout where he missed doesn't change the fact that he is still a talented player that any football team would be lucky to have.  He's a good player and that's why he was probably picked by the coach, who by the way, knows more about his capabilities that us, the supporters.
It's a pity he missed his penalty kick and I too thought he should have done things differently but alas, he did what I would assume was his nest at that point and it didn't work out. We should move on, turn that grief into motivation and prepare to play for 3rd place.

[Mr Reporter]

After Nwabali saved Morocco penalty and gave the Super Eagles a chance to beat Morocco's in the penalty shootout, the Super Eagles' fans were expecting Chukwueze to score his penalty so that he would put the Super Eagles ahead in the penalty shootout, but Chukwueze messed up and played a penalty that even a 10 years old girl could stop. The Super Eagles' fans have the right to say ill words against Chukwueze because Chukwueze let everyone down, but I am not in support of the people that said Igbo are the problem we have in Nigeria.

This is very wrong and astonishing. No the Nigerian fans don’t have any right to say ill words against Chukwueze, and no football fan have the right to say ill words against players that miss penalties.
Nigerian fans said so many ill words and Chukwueze is a human being and those words can affect him mentally, the fans said it but they don’t have any right to say it, stop supporting bullying.
In future Nigerian players will reject playing for the country because of this behavior from fans.
And if you support that fans have the right to tell Chukwueze ill words then you should not choose the ill words that they should tell him. Condemn the ill words and don’t pick which word is one that you don’t like.

Fans getting too harsh on players after a miss can be really tough on them mentally. Chukwueze's got skills, and one missed penalty doesn't define him, Fans shouldn't trash-talk players; it's not okay,
Words hurt; players are humans too,Harsh behavior might push players away from representing Nigeria.

[Callido]

Everyone is hurt since the Super Eagles could secure a passage to the final, but even though the Super Eagles couldn't set up a final with Senegal, I will still watch the Super Eagles match with Egypt, and I will support the Super Eagles to beat Egypt so that they can finish third in this year's African Cup of Nations. Since the Super Eagles couldn't win the African Cup of Nations, I am rooting for Senegal to win it.

At this stage, every Nigerian will be rooting for Senegal to win the AFCON. After all that happened in the semi final, Morocco don't deserve to win, yes the penalty would have decided the outcome for us, unfortunate that our players didn't handle it alright, but the whole 90 minutes was referred to the advantage of the host team, i just home the West Africans start understanding that not having a safe and developed stadiums to host the AFCON, will continue to have a negative effect on their progress, each time any other North African country hosts the AFCON, the support for Morocco to go to the final wasn't hidden, the officiators definitely had something going on.

[Stable090]

Everyone is hurt since the Super Eagles could secure a passage to the final

Everyone had confidence in the super eagles in the match. Super eagles plays better in the AFCON so people were expecting them to get to the final, I saw some people saying the super eagles will be winning the AFCON this year, but they didn’t know things won’t end up like that. I really felt disappointed that super eagles were disqualified.

Super eagles lost to Moroccan in their last match. I don’t even know who to blame in the match, the super eagles had some changes even as it wasn’t much, but they missed all. The super eagles were not just lucky, I was thinking as they couldn’t qualify for the World Cup, I was thinking they going to win the AFCON for us, but they are already out.

[Wakate]

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.

Is you are justifying the super eagle for their weakness not to have scored a goal? Stop this please and let's bring this to reality without putting a side on the super eagle because they are from your country. Let's be blunt about this without any sentiment!
Nigeria failed to qualify for the world cup, and also they also failed to qualify for the AFCON final.
So unfortunate...what else you wanna write?

[odunybiz]

I don’t get people are saying Morocco was the better side. This was not the result I wanted but in my opinion, the game was 50-50 till full-time,

The game was equal. I never see Morocco team to be better than Nigeria. If they were better as some people are saying, they should atleast have a way to the net. Although they had more shots than Nigeria but non have it way to the net.

both sides played like it was the finals.

The final of AFCON has already been played indirectly that day. Morocco won us and they already won the cup. I don't see Senegal as an obstacle for Morocco. Morocco had good team far better than Senegal and they will definitely play the final match with full strength to have the cup.

It’s unfortunate that Nigeria are not good in penalties.

Although sometimes penalty can be a game of luck but here I can say Nigeria's players are not good at penalty. I already no we have a very low chance to win if the match leads to penalty.

[nelson4lov]

~Snip

Everyone acting as if we deserved to go through to the Penalty shootout - we didn't deserve anything from that game, we were dominated from the first minute, it wasn't our day and that's just football. We approached the game with a wrong mindset and paid dearly.

We have to accept that they have a better model than us and move on- they're not the Best team on the continent for nothing

On the contrary, I haven't been sugarcoating how horrible our performance was that day. As someone that didn't see some of the games but watched the last 2 matches before the Morocco game, my expectations were high. Imagine my disappointment when we only had around 2 shots vs 13 from Morocco. I love attacking football and the minute I saw the team start defending from the first few minutes, I knew it was over.

We had nothing good to offer whenever we moved forward. The best team won.

[Smartvirus]

Is you are justifying the super eagle for their weakness not to have scored a goal? Stop this please and let's bring this to reality without putting a side on the super eagle because they are from your country. Let's be blunt about this without any sentiment!
Nigeria failed to qualify for the world cup, and also they also failed to qualify for the AFCON final.
So unfortunate...what else you wanna write?

Absolutely not, there is nothing to justify neither is there anything to condemn, they both had good performances although, I still maintain that the Moroccans were better, no doubt about that.

If we are to rest it all on the Super Eagles not having to score, well so did the Atlas Lions, both teams couldn’t get a goal in regular time and had to get the decider with penalties.

We just didn’t get our very bests to take the penalties and some players were way more relaxed than others. The better team won and are off to the finals.

[DaNNy001]

Is you are justifying the super eagle for their weakness not to have scored a goal? Stop this please and let's bring this to reality without putting a side on the super eagle because they are from your country. Let's be blunt about this without any sentiment!
Nigeria failed to qualify for the world cup, and also they also failed to qualify for the AFCON final.
So unfortunate...what else you wanna write?

Absolutely not, there is nothing to justify neither is there anything to condemn, they both had good performances although, I still maintain that the Moroccans were better, no doubt about that.

If we are to rest it all on the Super Eagles not having to score, well so did the Atlas Lions, both teams couldn’t get a goal in regular time and had to get the decider with penalties.

We just didn’t get our very bests to take the penalties and some players were way more relaxed than others. The better team won and are off to the finals.

To me, morroco didn't really play well in that game...saying this because if the super eagles were good enough morroco would not even be able to compete with them....chuckwu eze was selected to play the penalty kick this means that he was trusted to do that based on his experience but he decided to pass the ball to their goal keeper. I believe their manager is going to use this as wake up call for next season

[Bobrox]

Everyone had confidence in the super eagles in the match. Super eagles plays better in the AFCON so people were expecting them to get to the final, I saw some people saying the super eagles will be winning the AFCON this year, but they didn’t know things won’t end up like that. I really felt disappointed that super eagles were disqualified.

Super eagles lost to Moroccan in their last match. I don’t even know who to blame in the match, the super eagles had some changes even as it wasn’t much, but they missed all. The super eagles were not just lucky, I was thinking as they couldn’t qualify for the World Cup, I was thinking they going to win the AFCON for us, but they are already out.

All fans has their own confidence about the favorite team winning the match between Nigeria and Morocco teams fans, but you must accepting the fact Morocco teams have many top players who playing at Europe club or Asian Club. In last several year Morocco performing well exactly at World Cup 2026 and the winning trend performance of Morocco all friendly matches and AFCON match since group phase.

When the match have continue for penalty kick actually Morocco is favorite team for winning the match, if you remember Morocco goal keeper Yassine Bounou is the top keeper always performing well trough penalty kick moment. Almost several time always made crucial save trough penalty not only for his national teams but also when still playing for Sevilla he made many penalty kick.

[Wakate]

To me, morroco didn't really play well in that game...saying this because if the super eagles were good enough morroco would not even be able to compete with them....chuckwu eze was selected to play the penalty kick this means that he was trusted to do that based on his experience but he decided to pass the ball to their goal keeper. I believe their manager is going to use this as wake up call for next season

Morroco was frankly playing defensive and that is what help them to make it very hard for the super eagle to score.
The match was tough and it was not easy for the both team to score themselves allowing the match to end up in a draw.
If not for the penalty, Nigeria would have won the match but all thanks to their efforts.

[Kelward]

To me, morroco didn't really play well in that game...saying this because if the super eagles were good enough morroco would not even be able to compete with them....chuckwu eze was selected to play the penalty kick this means that he was trusted to do that based on his experience but he decided to pass the ball to their goal keeper. I believe their manager is going to use this as wake up call for next season

Morroco was frankly playing defensive and that is what help them to make it very hard for the super eagle to score.
The match was tough and it was not easy for the both team to score themselves allowing the match to end up in a draw.
If not for the penalty, Nigeria would have won the match but all thanks to their efforts.

Nigerian, versus Morocco, game has come and gone, it doesn't matter if the super eagles were the better side or not the fact remains that we lost the game, I think our focus should be on our third place match with Egypt. I hope that the super eagles wins the third place match and atleast have something to show for their gallant performance in this AFCON. I'm betting on the super eagles to win and I'm quite positive about it so I have a double reason to hope that they defeat Egypt, to give us compensation over their lose to Morocco. The four semi final teams are arguably the better teams in this year's AFCON and I'm glad that Nigeria's super eagles is among them.