One word: Nightmare.
As gutted as I am to say it, Nigeria will not be in AFCON 2015. The Super Eagles needed to beat South Africa in Uyo, but could only manage a draw and have lost their continental title before the finals have even begun, a title they have meekly surrendered. The worst result of the roller-coaster campaign was the 2-3 loss at home to Congo. How can that score line be justified? Nigeria need to move on from this quickly and most importantly learn from it. There are serious lessons to be learnt and much reflection needs to be

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Congo qualify behind the outstanding South Africans and Nigeria have only themselves, and their hapless manager, to blame. At breakfast, Stephen Keshi will become toast and no one will mourn his departure. He has surely ran his course as coach. He took over a team that failed to qualify for the 2012 AFCON in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon and took them to the pinnacle of the continental game in just over a year. The Super Eagles also played at the just concluded World Cup losing to France at Round 16, but the astounding highs of the previous campaign only make this abysmal failure much more difficult to take.


Fair enough, in tonight’s game Nigeria were missing a couple of players; Raheem Lawal replaced Hope Akpan stricken by injury, and Kenneth Omeruo came straight into the side for the suspended Godfrey Oboabona but that’s not an excuse. They still had the players capable of going out there and getting a win. The game that dealt the death blow was supposed to be the most benign of fixtures: at home against South Africa. Allied to this was that Bafana Bafana had secured qualification already, so in theory, they have nothing to play for in Uyo.
The Super Eagles had three excellent opportunities in the first half, all of which fell to Ahmed Musa. The first from when he won the ball in the center circle, the second after a harmless ball was allowed to run through, and the third after Mikel turned quickly in midfield and slid him in. Tellingly, none came from any sustained possession or incisive build-up. The CSKA Moscow man failed to capitalize
In all honesty, the reality of it is that right now, Nigeria needed this kick up the ass. The way they played throughout the campaign, they didn’t deserve to qualify. Not even good enough as the best third-place team across the seven groups.
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Afcon 2015 Groups | LOGS
Group A
Pos Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts
1 S.Africa 6 3 3 0 9 3 6 12
2 Congo 6 3 1 2 6 6 0 10
3 Nigeria 6 2 2 2 9 7 2 8
4 Sudan 6 1 0 5 3 11 -8 3