₦airaland Forum

G00dharddick:
The coach was trained by Jose Mourinho

He wasn't, they are just friends, went to the same school

fergie001:
Mourinho spoke in a chat with FIVE UK in a yet-to-be-released episode

Yea, just watch the video. No Portuguese coach has won the AFCON

CockPit:
None.

I dont watch football matches. Waste of my time.
I watch world cups though.

Na cricket dem dey play for world cup

noob03saibot:
the one against barca, was it the one Torres scored that late goal after Lionel hit the woodwork with a penalty? I think Terry was also sent off in that game.

Exactly

iwaeda:
What are your expectations of Super Eagles against Elephants of Ivory Coast?

At the end of the day, a team will either 4times African champion or 3 times African champion.

This, I have seen

Anatolia:
Do you want to tell me people didn’t vote massively for him in the South West and Core north?

Those that were intimidated with thugs n oro festival....dey play

God1000:
What exactly is happening under Tinubu?

We've never had it this bad

I remember that prayer point in Church now:

May we never beg for Buhari to come back

It's happening already

chokekachy:
Africa Facts Zone

In terms of what? Cramming or facilities

ebubeson:
I have watched several tough matches that caused tension, but the one I can bring out is Chelsea VS Man united (Champions League Final) 2008

Nothing compares to

Chelsea Barcelona 2012 (2nd leg) semi final
Chelsea Bayern 2012 final

Those two matches are incredible

gaby:
Where is Tammy Abraham today? Lol

Tiri layuon, e no see...

Chupa Eagles, e no see..

The guy mess up his career, he would have been ahead of lookman by now in the national team

GanagiBitrus:
Nigeria vs Ivory Coast All Time Head to Head Record:
9 Wins
10 Draws
9 Losses

FIFA Rankings in Africa:
Nigeria #6
Ivory Coast #8

Looks like a 50-50 game to me, also considering Ivory Coast's Home Advantage.

Nigeria will be in top 5 Africa ranking by the end of this week

robosky02:
AFCON 2023 Best Player of Tournament Contenders: Nwabali, Troost Ekong Lead


The 2023 AFCON Best Player of the Tournament is set to ignite debate
The two finalists are most likely to produce the winner after Sunday's game
Sports Brief looks at some of the leading contenders as things stand


The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations is on its homestretch with Nigeria and the hosts Ivory Coast the remaining teams to battle it out for the title.


Nigeria beat a troublesome South Africa in the penalty shoot-outs while Ivory Coast saw off DR Congo to set up a repeat of the group stage clash, which the Super Eagles won.

Any player will tell you that the collective honours come first as most of them target their first silverware in national team colours. However, after the February 11 final, CAF will fete a couple of players individual honours.

AFCON Golden Ball winners
Top of the bunch will be the best player of the tournament, who will be given the Golden Ball. A quick check by Sports Brief shows that players whose teams have won the title are always in good standing to win the award.

Losing finalists have also, in the past, won the award, with Christian Atsu (Ghana 2015) and Jonathan Pitroipa (Burkina Faso 2013) being the most recent examples. There have been three cases of bronze medalists winning the award: Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria 2004), Kalusha Bwalya (Zambia 1996), and Hassan El-Shazly (Egypt 1963).

We have only had two cases of a player whose team finished fourth being declared the best player of the tournament - Aziz Bouderbala (Morocco 1988) and Laurent Pokou (Ivory Coast 1970). No player has ever won the award if his team didn't reach the semi-finals.


Holders Senegal remain team to beat after spectacular AFCON group stage

Holders Senegal remain team to beat after spectacular AFCON group stage
AFCON 2023 Best Player candidates
In light of the above, it is safe to assume that a player from Nigeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa or DR Congo will be in line to replace Sadio Mane. Sports Brief looks at the leading contenders ahead of the Sunday final.

5. Victor Osimhen - Nigeria
The reigning African Player of the Year hasn't scored as much as he would have liked to, but he has been instrumental nonetheless in Jose Peseiro's approach.


The Napoli forward incessant work rate has won Nigeria two penalties, provided an assist and scored once. A lifetime performance in the final could propel him to the award.

4. Franck Kessie - Ivory Coast
After initially being dropped by interim manager Emerse Fae for the clash against Senegal, the former Barcelona man has returned to the fold to be the leading light of the Elephants.


Ivory Coast's pathetic group-stage campaign will work against him, but his displays against Senegal (off the bench), Mali and DR Congo (Man of the Match) put him in good standing among all the Ivorian players.

3. Ademola Lookman - Nigeria
Despite Ademola Lookman missing a couple of decent opportunities, he is still the leading goalscorer of the remaining teams.

With three goals to his name, the Atalanta forward can bridge the gap between him and the topscorer Emilio Nsue in the final game. Zambia's Christopher Katongo was the last player to win both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball.


2. Stanley Nwabali - Nigeria
You will have to go back to 1968 when DR Congo's Kazadi Mwamba became the first and only goalkeeper to date to win AFCON's best player award.

Nwabali has demanded that Nigerian and African football fans take cognizance of him with impeccable goalkeeping. He leads the goalkeepers in clean sheets. His two saves in the shoot-out against South Africa helped his side progress.


So much for someone who had 'not been tested' before.

1. William Troost-Ekong - Nigeria
Leader. Captain. Goalscorer.

In tournaments like these, all the plaudits tend to go to the goalscorers and marquee stars. But Troost-Ekong has redefined Nigeria's campaign, sitting in the middle of Peseiro's three-man defence. They have only conceded twice in the whole tournament, one from the penalty spot.


Up front, he has scored two penalties, both in critical times, to keep his country's quest for a first AFCON title since 2013 going. If Nigeria beat Ivory Coast on Sunday and Troost-Ekong has another decent game, it is hard to see why he shouldn't win the award.

Cameroon great Rigobert Song is the last defender to win the award.

Other mentions
The aforementioned players must have a really pathetic game in the final for a South African player, or DR Congo have a look-in at the award. In the unlikely case, it happens, Ronwen Williams and Teboho Mokoena have been outstanding for Bafana Bafana, while Chancel Mbemba has led from the front for Fimbu.

Sebastien Haller, Ademola Lookman, Victor Osimhen, AFCON 2023, Stanley Nwabali, William Troost-Ekong,



https://sportsbrief.com/football/58619-afcon-2023-player-tournament-contenders-nwabali-troost-ekong-lead/

If nig wins, it will go to Nigeria, if civ wins, it will go to them

KosiGee:
Isima is a barrister now. He lived in Uwani, Enugu….very intelligent and skillful footballer.

He is from same town as Alex Ekwueme, Oko in Orumba north of Anambra state. This man used to be a ‘baller’.

From the hand bandage, it's obvious

What is Konji

Nazgul:
As a professor of law who as been in practice for decades, and a SAN, she can't tell me that she relies solely on her salary for survival.

For starters she should have her own Chambers, with young lawyers working there. She's should use her position as a Prof to get closer to politicians so her Chambers can be contracted to represent them.

I still find it very difficult to believe that a woman of her status depends totally on her salary.

Not all lawyers are successful like that. Title does not necessarily translate to wealth

egbedox:
Football experts, why was there no extra time and they went to penalty shootout immediately?

It's part of the modification of the rules. Since third place is a dead rubber game, dragging it to extra time before pk will be wasting of resources.

fergieboy:
This would have been the fate of super eagles had it been iheanacho missed the last pk

No, SA would still need to convert his kick.

Nig won the pk 4:2

So boring

Some teams won't have goal in this tournament if not for the VAR awarded PKs

Prigidypogodo:
from access bank, union, UBA, even moniepoint and palmpay are down.
what's happening?

First no dey among

Elxandre:
A trophy with 8 winners in ten years is not hard to win?

Yes. Same set of winners . To make it worse, CIV walked into the final as best loser

Egypt got to the final 2 years ago without winning a game in 90mins in the knock out stage

The tournament as shown that you can be poor and still go all the way to the final

Careente7:
This one think say e wise ; Playing mind game with y’all 😂

He dey play safe

Ibrahimcoomasie:
https://dailypost.ng/2024/02/10/afcon-final-ivory-coast-will-go-home-with-cup-in-error-prophet/

Werey dey sit on the fence.

If Nig wins, he ll say it's his prayer

If CIV wins, he will attribute it to what he saw

Mayoisemj4real:
till tomorrow before I go sleep again,by then my dream would have come to pass

yinmu

sexyto:
I usually buy by amount not the fuel price, so I get my money's worth.

You still don't get it. I can explain more than that

Mayoisemj4real:
I dreamt we played them 3-2

Go back to bed, this time don't use pillow and dream again

sexyto:
How is buy by price cheating oneself?

E.g if 10litres is N500.01

If you buy using litres, you will pay N500

But if you buy using price, the attendance can stop the pump at N499.99 or less which is a bit less than 10 litres

Now, imagine using such trick on 100 customers per day, let's say 0.1litres X 100 = 10litres. That's the gain of the fuel attendant each day outside his salary

anslemarinze52:
But tough 👌👌.

Not tough, you can't have a tough match game is been played below standard

stuffs4me:
The board is too high for people of normal height.

Then use the board at your height level. It's not mandatory that you start writing from the top

Akuruoulo:
Ur people have more male rapist.
Most male child were raped than female child , but no one cares

Check the stat of male child rape victim to female

Now, check the overall rape victims, male vs female

comodo:
The board needs to be lowered by 600mm. But the lady just wanted to write at her eye level. She just didn't want to raise her hand while writing.

The board is OK, those pupils at the back won't see if it's lowered

ozo13:
Dey catch cruise.From the pic her height is even somehow more than an average height so she should contact the school management to lower the height of the board.An elderly teacher will find it using same method to teach the school pupils.They need solution as not everyone will be able to climb chair to teach

If they lower the height of the board, how will the students sitting at the back see? The board is well placed

adefitim:
Ola Aina is one of the best players not only for Nigeria but in the whole of this tournament but the moment he was moved to the left wing back due to Zaidu's absence, he struggled a bit in our last game. The day I feared the young lad was the day Nottingham Forest, his club in England faced Manchester United. He showed them pepper.

If Zaidu is fit, he should start. At least, the number one job of a defender is to stop the opponent and in that aspect, you can't fault him; it is just that modern football also demands wing backs or full backs, depending on the team set up, to also be attack minded and players like Roberto Carlos are responsible for that. Lol

The nucleus three of Semi Ajayi, Calvin Bassey and Troost-Ekong have proven to be a very solid shield for the goalkeeper and the goalkeeper himself whenever he is exposed which has been rare, he never disappoint. So the backline is settled.

The trio of Osimhen, Lookman and Simon upfront have been giving every team we have played serious headache and Cote D'Ivoire will not be an exception.

Nine out of eleven positions have been taken care of so far with two positions left: DM and CM, defensive midfielder and central or attacking midfielder which have been manned by Frank Onyeka and Alex Iwobi respectively. And while I rate the Brentford of England player 8/10 so far in his DM role for the Eagles, I rate the Fulham man, Iwobi 5.5/10.

And I think that Peseiro and his team of coaches understand this and that is the reason Super Eagles creativity has been from the wings especially through Aina and Simon while Lookman has emerged as the talisman with Osimhen dragging opposing defenders with his runs there by creating space for Eluku.

If therefore, there will be any change at all in the starting 11, I will like to see only Yusuf Alhassan take the place of Iwobi. He will make the midfield a bit more solid and his passes are more accurate.

The Ivorians rely a lot on the midfield and we must not allow them take charge. Iwobi is the reason Osimhen overworks. I love him but let's leave sentiment.

Over all, I don't see their luck carrying them beyond silver medals tomorrow.

#SWA

Rubbish

Drop Iwobi for who? Al hassan came in and caused penalties in the last match. You don't just change the chemistry of a team anyhow