If Victor is not good enough to play this first half please take him out for a fit player.

Bright osayi's jersey shirt doesn't have a number on it.

komekn:
Oh my goodness seconds to go and Fofana had scored for CIV He has destroyed the hearts 💕 of Mali and in my opinion against the run of play Wow 😳

You don dey smoke 🚭 that thing again sir ?

Curtisaxel17:
OGN reports Zaidu to be dropped "due to injury" . Aina to be played on the left and Osayi-Samuel on the right.

Guys, abeg how una see this one? I would have preferred a natural left footer on that LWB spot so our quality crosses can be assured. And Osayi hasn't really convinced me in this tournament o.

Which kain mistake be this one? Aina himself should tell the coach to put him on the right, if he messes up today's game I will not spare him any tongue-lashing and invective remarks. He was jittery when he played against Guinea-Bissau on that wing. I hope he is able to cope even though he plays on the left for Nottingham forest.

MetalJigsaw:
E be like u get personal beef with am. What do you mean sick? He's not that bad na

He runs commentary as though he is still learning the trade. I understand he held N office under the Buhari administration as an adviser to the president on sport-related affairs. I believe he is a good lobbyist. For commentators, there are many Nigerians who could do it better to the ears of the listener. This is not a political affair where incompetence and subpar performance are celebrated.

https://twitter.com/Oladapomikky1/status/1754881648963813438?t=Dp853whxV1xDLtrhY7GWLg&s=19

Prime Obafemi Martins

Some cars got only one side mirror

ChrisKels:


I dun remove am because na unnecessary distraction for now but after the tournament I will call Omanbala’s attention to it

When they win they tournament and state governors are honoring players from their state, we will know which state each player belongs to.

safarigirl:
Guys, if we win this AFCON, we will match Ghana's 4 AFCONs and they will no longer be able to chat to us on that front.

Lol for matching their AfCON trophy and not surpassing it. An AFCON trophy that they have last won in 1982. And we are just about equalling. Give the little country the flowers it deserve, I mean how could the likes of segun Odegbami, Christian Chukuwu, Steven Keshi, and JJ Okocha play so many years and still deliver only 3 AFCON for us. I feel we should easily be on 9 AFCON trophies by now.

Goke7:
Angola stretching our boys, we may need to change tactics

Exactly. If we stick to this tactics in our next game, we will definitely play penalties. Individually, some players are beginning to fatigue or burn out.

The Angolans were actually a tougher opponent than Cameroun.

jieta:
Is not white privilege, it's about there performance in the world cup.

Not exactly, Qatar had equally participated before.

Daninya33:
The Moroccan national team has been invited for the COPA America invitational tournament 2024.

White privilege

ChrisKels:
One thing wey dey sweet my bele about this AFCON is the fact that Nigeria doesn’t play soft anymore. Omo the way we play with muscle these days like an EPL side dey sweet me. Imagine us bullying Ivory Coast and Cameroon in muscle plays. Even Semi Ajayi sef dun dey brutal with tackles and aerial battles. Na only Iwobi wey dey soft, others are ready to unalive an opponent 😂🤣😂🤣

I noticed this too, except Aribo , he still dey play like mummy's boy

TheSuperNerd:
My Moroccan boys have done themselves in. A shameful way to crash out.
Hakimi penalty miss.
Amrabat red card.
That SA freekick.

You get to the WC Semis and can't get past the Afcon Round of 16.

Worst is you are being beaten by boys from Kuvuki land.

Afcon >>>> World Cup.

Argue with your laptop/phone screens.

Lol

South Africa very much played with the spirit of their leading Club, Mamelodi Sundowns, while Sundowns have mastered beating North Arfican clubsite like Raja Casablanca and their Egyptian counterparts. I guess this helps the national team translate and understand the north African teams as well. Not surprising why South Africa beat Egypt in 2019 at home, and then beating Morocco in Ivory coast again.

DrKlever:
Why are the Ivorians supporting Morocco. That's quite weird.

Morocco 🇲🇦 defeated Zambia 🇿🇲 in the last group match which allowed Ivory coast 🇨🇮 to qualify for the knockout stage. The Ivorian fans are grateful to that.

charlesemeka85:
As first reported by SCORENigeria, a major pay row is boiling in the Super Eagles camp at the 2023 AFCON after outstanding bonuses and allowances of the team have yet to be paid despite a Government approval to clear these monies.


It can now be reported that the cash crisis in the Super Eagles has taken a new dimension after several senior players fell out with captain Ahmed Musa for “not fighting” for the team.

SCORENigeria learnt that the senior players accused Ahmed Musa of taking sides with the NFF leadership as it concerns payments for them.


One of the senior players who recently captained the team in the absence of Ahmed Musa had a personal confrontation with the captain on this vexed issue.


It was alleged that Ahmed Musa has failed to carry the rest of the team on discussions concerning their welfare.

“There is a serious issue of trust between Ahmed Musa and the other players when it comes to pursuing their entilements,” one of the players told SCORENigeria

“They believe he has not represented their interests.”

Some of the players have already warned they will go “above and beyond” their captain and take the matter to a higher level soon.

“How do you expect Ahmed Musa to take on the NFF to get the entitlements of the team when they did him a very big favour by getting him on the AFCON squad?” another source rhetorically asked SCORENigeria

Are these sort of news about money payment always premeditated? Why does it always have to reoccur. Both male and female teams. It is even peculiar in many African countries. In Ghana they had to fly money to Brazil to share.

In America, I recall that the US women team was advocating for equal payment with their male counterparts. Theirs is not that they are being owed.

chrisooblog:
My brother as I see the way Francis kick those goalkicks I redoubled my prayers for Nwabali to be fit by Friday.

The strongest agbo and best bone setters should be sent asap by DHL to Abidjan.

The two times he played those goal kicks he caused a clash of heads between our players. The first was between Aina and Onyeka. The second was between Osimhen and I think Bassey. His goal-kick range was short. When the Angolan goalkeeper came on after their first-choice goalkeeper got an early red card, he made a beautiful save immediately. Mind you this Angolan second-choice was also their previous first-choice goalkeeper in their last AFCON appearance. It's not a question of confidence but a question of hunger. Uzoho is not hungry for the opportunity to improve. And no wonder he could say "if e easy, make Oyinbo sign you" . I want to ask him now that "so as oyinbo sign you now, you think say that na all, you think say na final bus stop, you think say you don arrive "

Mujtahida:

Yeah charlesemeka85 is one of our respected contributors. Our FBs have channeled their in-born naija spirit and are playing with so much grit and power. Many people talk about Osimhen's pressing but Lookman dey press too ooo. As him body small, him Dey hustle from defence to attack

You are very right sir. The two of them are even beginning to sync more. There was a dummy move that Lookman did in the first half which allowed Osimhen possession for a one -two pass back to lookman, although it didn't work out well, buy it tells you that both guys are beginning to play on the same mind frequency. And that will be good going forward.

I see that movement and blend in the Angolan team as well between Gelson Dala on 4 goals. Their captain who has 3 assist already in the tournament. And their number 19 point man who has 3 goals too.

daveP:
Let's assess Iwobi's over performance pls. Leave Commentator aside fes.

Very good display. He got tired but still effective. He was able to contribute to the second goal. The bench team understands why they could not substitute him. I am beginning to think players who played early in European academies have a better technical understanding. Look at the second goal, all starting from Bassey winning a freekick, and then himself, lookman and Iwobi doing the job to score the second goal. That was beautiful.

Neobulletzz:

The keeper is always the last man in football rules so if a player is behind the keeper, the player won’t be counted. The keeper is the last man

That has changed. If a player is behind the keeper, the player becomes the last man. And the keeper is seen as a player. You could see it didn't take the referee time to blow offside when he checked VAR..

Even to tie shoelaces, Uzoho still looks sluggish.

Who notices that there is some kind of game reading Ekong has that Omeruo doesn't have. Not saying Omeruo isn't good with his own qualities as well, but I think this has to do with their leadership style. Ekong is a far better leader.

Namibia's nemesis has been their south African neighbours. Losing 4 nil to South Africa. And again losing 3 nil to Angola. Against the North African side, Tunisia they won by a goal to nil, yet against our west African neigbours, Mali, they played goalless. Perhaps it is more of a mindset problem for them.

komekn:


Your selection will see us get whipped, Violated and mashed up. Starting from the defence:

This is athletic power football ⚽ Omeruo ( expired drug) will get overpowered, outpaced ( slow) and out jumped and bullied. I remember how he got destroyed by Cameroon the last time.

CB's have to be Ekong and Bassey ( Afang with pounded yam) eee no get contest. Aina is deceptively fast and strong with football intelligence and arguably the best passing and crossing range in the entire SE team, that's both left and right feet. Zaidu all brawn and no brains I'll play Aina LB and Osayi RB.

Alhassan be like fowl that breeze go carry go. He has no physicality and poor stamina and not enough inventive creative technicality, add to that he is short no aerial ability it's over against Cameroon with tall midfielders a big liability.

Raphael is a very strong immobile brick 🧱 wall that has zero creativity, Onyeka is much more mobile they offer very little inventiveness and creativity they are both water 💦 carriers but the best is Frank ( great stamina)

Forwards only two choices without question Ademola and VO, who should play wing Simon or Chukwueze, I don't know both have different issues and they can't cross consistently with quality. Poor end product.

Midfield has to be Iwobi (AM) plus Aribo and Onyeka with a bit more creativity coming from Aribo.

It's going to be a long hard day , Cameroon are fired up .

This you wrote up here is stupidity at it's peak.

If you seeking financially profitable engagement consider twitter. This type of half-truth provokes people more to engage in your tweets just like Daniel Rhega does. But here it's simply a waste of time.

maidaboi:
same Aribo? 😂😂😂

Sometimes I feel for Komekn when he is being dragged but then that guy likes to seek attention like a soldier. Leave him to cap.

Today he will watch Alhassan and swallow his vomit of opinion.

TheLoneCitizen:
Can someone kindly explain this decision?

The ball later touched Osimhen's hand before, before it got to sanusi

Joezinho:
Trolling aside, I honestly wished Ghana qualified instead of Egypt.

Their group was one hell of a group. From Mozambique that held Egypt and almost got a win, to their comeback against Ghana.

To Cape Verde that got a last-minute win against Ghana and a last-minute equalizer against Egypt.

When Egypt and Ghana met it was another cracker. They played a 2-all. Egypt couldn't beat any team in the group. They played all draws in their matches. While Ghana slipped in their first match and conceded a die-minute goal against Cape Verd, they subsequently played draws in their remaining two games.

Icon4s:


See, the way this Nigerian team is set up we will give any team in this AFCON headache

Exactly. We are the hardest team to beat. But let us not give our players that impression as they may come out complacent.

Look at our games in the group stage, against EG we played them handsomely but couldn't convert. Then we understood that we need to shove up our defense and believe in our attack that we can seal up wins in whichever way they come. That was what we did in our other two matches.

Last time Senegal played like this in the group stage and won. Rohr played like this in 2019 and even lost his final game to Madagascar but still got the bronze medal. We are slowly and steadily metamorphing..keep the fire up. We are a semi-final team. My only worry is the Algerian side. They seem to play like, if they qualify I hope they meet senegal at some point while we play either of the dark horses in the semi finals.

charlesemeka85:
🟡⚫️ Understand Watford have agreed on deal to sign Emmanuel Dennis from Istanbul Basaksehir!

Surprise return agreed on loan until June as he accepted to take 70% pay cut to return and help Watford.

Medical booked on Tuesday.

#Fabrizio

Brother misses London, friends and lifestyle.

Sportilitica:
Nwablili is very vocal

It's probably because they are still knowing the kind of way he wants them to line up or guard him. At some point Uzoho was like that and later when the defender understood him he started shouting less often.

Wow! What a tournament for Equatorial Guinea, they are scoring goals were expecting of our teams to score. But first congratulations to us on our qualification to the next round. For EQG it is a massive achievement for them and their football status, they have really benefited lately from hosting the tournament twice. Their consistency in football is remarkable. Their female team was the first team to upset the hegemonic status of our super falcons. And their male national team is consistently making a statement for itself. We might have to watch out for them in the future to see where they go. Sadly, I'm still not convinced about their side as much as I'm not convinced about our ability to win this tournament. I believe getting to the semi-finals for us is an achievement. And it is being far generous as liberal in my expectations for them. For EQG like I said I doubt they will make it out of the round 16 irrespective of who they meet, because I don't think they have that mental ruggedness to sustain this, it is a gamble for me to say this, but it's coming of my knowledge of such teams in tournaments.


For the Super Eagles, can we say our best match from the group stage was our game against EQG?. Considering how we defended against Ivory Coast, and how we were lackadaisical in the first half today. This is what may will associate to a change in formation. But I think the answer is simple. It lies in the absence of a particular player with the skill set in our first game that balanced us up. It was alhassan's presence that saw us dominate our first game. And in his absence in our second and third games it turned us into a lucrid and impotent side that simply does the bare minimum to win games.

I believe it is beautiful that we can still win games without alhassan. But it is more important that he returns in our next match against whoever.

We've clearly seen Bassey can do the job of sanusi, although Bassey is a little erratic returning back when he bursts forward leaving open the space behind but it is not the problem that the center backs can't handle or the nearest center midfielder covers when the gap is opened.

Return Aina to the right, he is clearly miles ahead in this tournament. No disrespect to Bright-samuel he can always come from bench and get opportunities like he had when we played ivory coast.

Leadership matters, while omeruo was able to cover up and do his job neatly, I hold him responsible for the blandness of our first half display. Ekong bears a leadership pattern that has the team heated up. I wish omeruo can add that to his game. However, we might as well start Omeruo in our next game with Ajayi I think they are both capable and balanced.


Osimhen will come good. We just have to relax. I believe he will get it better in the next game, and I'm sure he knows that he has been well served. It is the knockout stage, and he must be reminded that he has to be clinical. Return Chukwueze to the bench. It's been two games and no clear chances created. We scored today off a moses Simon cross he has the experience and Simon is better supporting the defense than Chukwueze. Bring lookman back to the starting line up. Aribo is barely in the tournament. He lacks confidence. And Onyeka has really blossomed in his confidence. Iwobi starts in our next game. Hopefully, we witness another pass like the one he lay to osimhen and I'm sure this time around Osimhen converts.