African Football Discussion Thread: {Current Topic: 👉 AFCON 2027 ⚽⚽}.

[Comeacross]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

[Franctoshi]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

On paper the Super eagle team are supposed to win as you said, but sadly nothing like a must win for me when it comes to anything to do with the super eagles team because I lack belief in them, even the smallest team you never think of can get a win from their hands. I'm not putting in any much interest in this game because they disappointed on their opportunity to qualify for the world cup, isn't a serious match for me, so whatever outcome from the game, I'm good.
 

[Jostern]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

I’m not worried about this game at all, because this should be a comfortable win for the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Nigeria have good defense and the attack is good as well, but I’m not confident in the midfield, especially having Ndidi and Frank Onyenka, it’s not a very good midfield other than Alexander Iwobi I’m just a bit confident with in the midfield, but the midfield should be good enough to win this game because of the caliber of opponents they’re playing no disrespect to Madagascar, Nigeria also playing at home should be enough for them to win because of the fans would be with them, and they can’t afford to disappoint after not qualifying for the just concluded FIFA World Cup.

[Stepstowealth]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

On paper the Super eagle team are supposed to win as you said, but sadly nothing like a must win for me when it comes to anything to do with the super eagles team because I lack belief in them, even the smallest team you never think of can get a win from their hands. I'm not putting in any much interest in this game because they disappointed on their opportunity to qualify for the world cup, isn't a serious match for me, so whatever outcome from the game, I'm good.

I will not be okay with whatever outcome from the game because I'm expecting a win from the Super Eagles and even if the  game ends in a draw, I will be still very disappointed in them because of the quality players we have in our team when you compare it to Madagascar. Football lovers from any country in the world can comfortably mention five Nigerian players than they can mention five Madagascar players So I see no reason why we should be even sharing points with a country like Madagascar, If we get any results aside from a win, is a disappointing result for me.

The most recent news form the Super Eagles camp is that players are in camp, and will start training today. Taiwo Awoniyi is the replacement for Victor Osimhen.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/911017-afcon-qualifiers-awoniyi-replaces-injured-osimhen-in-super-eagles-squad.html?utm

[abaeze]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

This is an important match for Nigeria and we expect a good performance from them because of the home advantage. If we review the past history, we did not lose to Madagascar in AFCON qualifying but Osimhen's absence and since football is a game of uncertainty, even if 2-0 is not a sure thing, I expect a win. Now let's see what Chukwueze, Lookman do. But since they have not scored a goal against us in qualifying so far. So the confidence is very high.

[Felicity_Tide]

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game?

I'm not exactly sure now, but I think there are 4 games to be played in this qualifiers. I personally won't call it an easy game because there have been some changes in football across the world lately. Teams are not more tactically sound than before. We now have too many underdogs pulling surprises. I really hope we don't start drawing games that we're expected to win because that was literally what deprived the boys of playing in the 2026 FIFA WC.

As for Oshimen, I heard he was invited. I might as well have to go through the invitation list to know players that were invited. This is a must win for the boys, but I wouldn't take the risk of placing a bet on this one.

[Mr Reporter]

On paper the Super eagle team are supposed to win as you said, but sadly nothing like a must win for me when it comes to anything to do with the super eagles team because I lack belief in them, even the smallest team you never think of can get a win from their hands. I'm not putting in any much interest in this game because they disappointed on their opportunity to qualify for the world cup, isn't a serious match for me, so whatever outcome from the game, I'm good.
 

My bro honestly i really lost hope after the world cup quarter honestly i would say it was not a big disappointment to me, but at some point let not completely up on them, well you made mention that "On paper we are still stronger" yes that true but the government are to be blame for this...because they are really in control of all this nonsense from the looks of thing the main problems of the Super Eagles is not talent, it is consistency and coaching, if they can work so hard on this part i believe it will give a little boost to them...

[kingstep]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

There's nothing like a must win for the super eagles based on their past performance and we can only wish them luck knowing that they are fund of being a great disappointment to us. VO9 not being in the team will be felt but they've got to learn how to survive without him even if it entails that they have to do it the hard way. Madagascar is not a big team that we can't win easily coupled with the fact that we have the joke advantage and that we are playing it on our home ground. This should be an easy win for the super eagles.

[Sammye3]

past history, we did not lose to Madagascar in AFCON qualifying but Osimhen's absence and since football is a game of uncertainty, even if 2-0 is not a sure thing, I expect a win. Now let's see what Chukwueze, Lookman do. But since they have not scored a goal against us in qualifying so far. So the confidence is very high.

This should be a smooth win even with the absence of Victor Osimhen, Madagascar should not be a difficult opponent for Nigeria considering their squad. With Samuel Chukwueze's form and other crucial players in the big leagues, it should cover up for Osimhen absence. Also, his replacement Akor Adams is also a pretty good striker that is clinical at goal range, I would be expecting nothing less than a win for Nigeria.

[Doan9269]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

Nigerian team could disappoint at any time and they could assume make us proud unexpectedly, you should not give up on them, on a normal day, they should be able to perform better even without Victor Osimhen, we should know under rate Madagascar because they may take advantage of us if we have the overconfidence of beating them, and that is when they must have understand the strategy we are going to use and relent on such as our defeating strategy.

[I_Anime]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

Nigerian team could disappoint at any time and they could assume make us proud unexpectedly, you should not give up on them, on a normal day, they should be able to perform better even without Victor Osimhen, we should know under rate Madagascar because they may take advantage of us if we have the overconfidence of beating them, and that is when they must have understand the strategy we are going to use and relent on such as our defeating strategy.

I don’t usually have much hope for the Nigerian team. Though  Anything can happen , during their 2019 Madagascar won with 2-0 , I think they will be over confident that they will beat the Nigerian team again. So the Nigerian team should take it as an advantage , not to underestimate their opponent especially now victor Osimhen won’t be playing, but still there are some good players that can still try to cover that gab .

[Churchillvv]

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

I might agree with you that we’ve been behind for quite sometime now so we need to push harder by generally wining most of the friendly competitions we have but I also do not put football out of the equation that this is football and basically anything can happen especially when one of the most important player is not available but that does not stop us from doing a good job, however if super eagles fails to win this time it’s going to look like we are not eh super eagle of before.

[Spaceman1000$]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

Football does not work like this anymore, you have to check the strength of your opponent before you make conclusions, if Madagascar at the moment are a very solid team, you cannot just easily say Nigeria will have a work over match against such a team. If you check the reasons why we did not qualify for the last World cup, some of the teams we met were teams ordinarily you will say are underdogs to Nigeria but then they still went on to beat Nigeria, so you should understand the football has evolved over the years, so you can only have a better tactics to win games, instead of mere speculating that you can just do better than the other person, when you don't know how tactically clever they are.

[AYOBA]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

Seriously if not that Nigeria disappointed in most of their games I could say we should be expected this match to be an easy match for Nigeria to win without much pressure from the opposition. But the time that people expect them to perform better and bring out positive results they will later, they will lose guard and lose to a weak opponent.

What's your prediction ahead of this game? I predict our super eagle to win with 2-0 to mark the beginning of AFCON journey. If we failed to beat Madagascar on Friday then we are not serious at all after failing to qualify for the just concluded world cup.

Making that prediction i think it’s to early to expect 2 goals from the super Eagles, but shall lest hope so since is the beginning of the AFCON, and although that they always doing better in the beginning of the season is just that they find it difficult to ended well in the AFCON. But we never knows how this season goes maybe it will difference from previous seasons.

[Roseline492]

Pre match discussion (Nigeria vs Madagascar, 25th Sept)

This should be a must win game for Nigeria. Unfortunately, the super eagle usually disappoint when you have so much confidence on them. We are playing at home, with or without Osimhen, we have enough to beat Madagascar because we are not on the same level with them.

Super eagles was the top three country in the last AFCON so this qualification should have been the most easy thing for them but however the squad also matters and the player that has been of most help for the national team will not be among the performing squad yet because of his injury, actually I didn't expect Voctor Osimhen injury to last up to this moment without recovery, so perhaps just like it has affected their club all this while is definitely also going to do the same on the super eagles to qualify, except he would join them sooner, already Madagascar have won super eagles before so they're not common.

[Ruttoshi]

Super eagles was the top three country in the last AFCON so this qualification should have been the most easy thing for them but however the squad also matters and the player that has been of most help for the national team will not be among the performing squad yet because of his injury, actually I didn't expect Voctor Osimhen injury to last up to this moment without recovery, so perhaps just like it has affected their club all this while is definitely also going to do the same on the super eagles to qualify, except he would join them sooner, already Madagascar have won super eagles before so they're not common.

I hope that the Super Eagles won't continue with their unseriousness with their qualifying matches till the last minutes that conditions will be attached to their qualifications. They need to clean up their mess for not qualifying to the world cup and win all their matches in this AFCON qualifications so that, they can be on clear standing.

Honestly. I also didn't expect Osimhen injury to be this serious and be out of play up till now. Definitely, his absence will affect the team in one way or the other.

[CryptSafe]

Victor Osimehn needs to recover fast from this injury, this was what happened the last time in the World Cup and Afcon qualifiers and before they could knew what was happening it was almost late for Nigeria to qualify for the World Cup after dropping points during the early stages of the qualifiers. I think right now, the Victor Osimehn effect in Galaterssary is also here in the super eagles team. We can see how Galatasaray have been struggling to win matches ever since Osimehn gets injured and there’s every likelihood it will happen to the super Eagles and before they could realize themselves it’s already late and it is capable of causing them to miss out in the next Afcon the same way they missed out in the last World Cup. After that heavy disappointment by the super eagles failure to qualify for the World Cup, they need to get back to winning ways immediately and they don’t have any reason to struggle to qualify from this group but With the way things are still going regarding this absence of Victor Osimehn they might be regretting later. Xxxx

Osimhens  absence at his club is really having a down tone effect on the team as they have not been in their best form and performance since he went on a medical leave. Same applicable to the national team and it is very dangerous that nobody could replace him whenever he is lot available for match. This is the result when a coach fails to train his players and team not to too depend on a particular player to be the hitman of the team.

Such situations derail team spirit and makes the players to see themselves as incompetent and unreliable.
Players should be able to play and win a match without putting the goal burden on their team member. If the team continues to hover around a particular player then they are lacking in capacity to thrive on their own to achieve their own goals.

As for our national team, we have lots of player's globally and they are willing to come play for the Super Eagles but I think  irrespective of the division a player's play for, he should be given the opportunity to show his skills in the national team. Kelechi Iheanacho is a skilful player which we all know it, although there are times players do not really show their best but that does not mean they are not good.