₦airaland Forum

Morocco winning the fair play award is the most absurd takeaway from the AFCON.

Joebie:
dey play..

He lost it because he was not the best to take it psychologically. you cheated.. players left the pitch, and now you have the burden to score whily your conscience dey worry you. His mind could not pick a spot, so he shot at the middle hoping the keeper will dive out of desperation. That is what happened.

Spot on

caprikon:
Senegal are the best team in Africa.

They played without fear or respect. Nigeria gave too much respect to Morocco in hindsight. I believe the SE grow will from this.

I agree. They won England last year in England and won DRC in DRC last year in a crucial qualifier. It takes a strong team to achieve those.

isan:
Protest what exactly? Did we have clean goal ruled out ? Got an undeserved red ? Morocco scored an illegal goal ? Clear penalty that wasn't called? On what occasion should Nigeria have walk out against Morocco ?

Ask him o. Did Senegal even walked out after their goal was cancelled? Asked him that too?

Dannyxy:
No be only intentional miss, all this Nigeria fans that will keep supporting cheats in the make of being neutral , Diaz wanted to score wetin good.

Don't mind them someone that was screaming for fake penalty now have it and decide to throw it away. How?

NasirIbnLaAhad:
Senegal has exposed your team as incomplete. Chelle did his best but clearly we're not there yet. We don't have the personnel. See how easy it was for Senegal to beat Morocco's squad. Poor officiating was never an excuse. I hope you all can rest that agenda now.

Poor officiating help your team in R16, Qtr final and semi final. The only time ref was not overly bias you lost. What does that tells you?

Last AFCON that it was fair, you left in R16.

Congrats to Senegal for snatching Moroccan Cup of Nations.

Senegal stop DRC from qualifying directly. CAF appoints a ref from DRC to officiate Senegal's match.

CAF appoints Ghanaian, Nigeria eternal rival for Nigeria's match.

And both ref deliver as expected

Ppogbae:
Screw being the 'better man'.

When there is injustice, it must be challenged head on. That walk off was the momentum shift the Senegalese needed.

Congrats to the good people of Senegal and Senegambia.

Injustice from R16 was too glaring. Morocco is a good team. What I don't understand is why they had to resort to ref help in every game.

Blueelf:
Una dey see am now

I told someone that we lack the players to make magic happen against teams like Morocco

Chelle good but we just don't have Senegal midfield.

Thanks God you guys are seeing your mates beat Morocco in extra time. Something vhelle and your overrated players (bar bassey and osimhen) couldn't do

Not same scenario. The difference:

1. From commentary here, the ref calls were even at the beginning unlike ours, that any contact was against us right from the blast of the whistle.

2. Morocco went 120min in the last match so fatigue set in and no way they can maintain same intensity as they did against us

Same thing affected Nigeria against DRV and CIV.

Congrats to Senegal and thank God Morocco+ CAF didn't win.

I join this match in 80min, from the little I have watched, I can it's pathetic.

Arabs (Morocco) using black refs to cheat up and down.

Black race are so pathetic.

Bossoflife25:
Referee has already blown the whistle before the goal! We had two same scenario against DRC now we are doing holier than though!

Ref or fan? There's VAR, he didn't need to blow so early if he did. This is unlike ours-there was no VAR.

That was a clear goal.

CornOak:
Wow, Senegal walk off the pitch.

Very good. They should damn the consequences. Enough is enough.

What sort of call is this in this AFCON, one after another.

Last tournament, VAR was the hallmark, praised worldwide. This time it's shambolic.

opes:
Super Eagles stars Victor Osimhen, Paul Onuachu and team captain Wilfred Ndidi have returned to Turkey following Nigeria’s AFCON 2025 outing and will miss the official medal presentation.

The trio, who are all based in the Turkish Super Lig, departed immediately after Friday night’s match on a private jet arranged at the request of their respective clubs.


https://bsnsports.com.ng/post/AFCON-2025--Ndidi--Onuachu--Osimhen-Return-to-Turkey--To-Miss-Medal-Presentation

Good. Make the rest boycott the rubbish in protest.
It's like Morocco walking out after Lookman was crown best.

BankyGee:
Too annoying.

If I list some of the "Grade A" coaches wey Éric Chelle don beat with both Mali and Nigeria, you go fear. Make them dey play.

If you do, the guy go change mouth to quality of players like say we asides quality strikers we get players like that

No be African teams get players for Mancity and Real Madrid? Him think say once all your players play for oyingbo dem better pass every other team.

Mujtahida:
"When the right man shows up, you will witness my unwavering validation."

I come dey laugh inside room at this time of the night. People dey ooo. Meli Meli. He say his unwavering validation.

Ejuke wey get your unwavering devotion not just validation, how e be?

Lolz. E dey worship am as next Okocha.

Goke7:
That’s why I can never support or agree with those who bash paseiro! Their contradictory conclusions is too much.

We hail Morocco now as the current model of African football but na haram football they use to achieve such status!

That's it. If Chelle had won this tournament, na people like him go say na because of the stars we have. That's how they belittle Amodu and Keshi's achievement

Meliforme:
The Egyptian coach made good use of the quality that is available to him.

He took our team to penalties.

Keep posting agenda until NFF hands you another Finidi.

Meliforme:
Egypt had more possession of the ball and created more big chances.

Eric Chelle did not fully utilise the quality at his call.

Egypt had more possession but we had more shot at target. You concluded Egypt 'bested' us.

Morocco had less possession than Nigeria but had more shot on target. You concluded Morocco 'bested' us. On top ref favouring them.

These conclusions are contradictory.

Meliforme:
Walid Regragui took Morocco to the Semi finals of the 2022 World cup, the same year he started as their coach.

Playing same style of football Peseiro played and reach final yet you criticised Peseiro.

Meliforme:
The Moroccan coach.
The Egyptian coach.

With the quality in our hands and with a sound coach, we should be the best in Africa.

Let me complete it for you: with qualities like Ejuke. Our players are scattered in Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City.

BankyGee:
Exactly, and na just 1 year and 8 days the Moroccan coach use become the "master tactician and guru maraji" of the continent with a little touch of cheat tactics too.

And spying on opponents training.

Even if host AFCON we no go win, NFF no get money to bribe CAF and referee.
They may even be happy to exit at the group stage so that left over money will be plenty for them.

realpoacher:
As a Coach, you always have one job to do.


Find a way to play your game.


In this Match, we did not play our game, infact, we couldn't play our normal free flowing football we were used to, why?

Morocco did not allow us to do that, they had 3 players on us whenever we tried to move the ball to their half, Pass to Osimehn, 3 people on him, pass to Akor, or Lookman or Iwobi, same story, 3 players on them. Towards the end of the match, Iwobi had to drop deep to the defense line to collect the ball and have a little freedom


As a Coach, what should you do? You don't stand for 90 minutes watch your team struggle to play their normal game, NO! ... You look for a way to fix it - think while on your feet and fix it.


Your opponent should not be running riots on you all night and you stand by doing nothing.

Algeria did that nonsense and got punished, Egypt did the same nonsense against Senegal and lost, Nigeria did the same nonsense against Congo and now Against Morocco.

I also see many coaches do this nonsense too but Pep doesn't, Arteta doesn't, Anceloti doesn't


As a Coach, learn try multiple formations, try your players in multiple positions, understand how they fare in uneven grounds so that when push comes to shove, instead of being clueless, you fix it on the field instantaneously.


From the first blast of the whistle, you could see that Morocco had studied your team to the very minute details, they figured that if they close the holes from the midfield down to the final third, your midfielders and attackers will be useless I.E it simply means that once they can cut off supply to midfielders and strikers,... Forget
.. Otilo.

Now as a Coach, what you should have done, seeing that for almost 60 minutes, you had no forward press nor shots on Target,... Then you switch the formation to 4-3-1-2


Remove Akor for Onauchu
Remove Onyedika for Chucks

Take Lookman to the left wing and Chuks to the right wing... Make them stay on the same line with Onyeka which is immediately after the back 4. Their job is to always go take the ball from the defenders and build from the back. Mind you, they are to both join in attack and defense (kind of mass-attack, mass defense just like it is on a 3-5-2 formation).

-------- Onauchu -------- Osimehn

------------------------- Iwobi -----------------


Lookman ---------- Onyeka ----------------- Chucks


Bruno ------- Bassey ---------- Ajayi ----- Osayi


With this setup, the Moroccans will certainly be deceived and run at you


Lookman and chucks are runners of the ball and will widen the field for Iwobi to operate


Onyeka has two oxygen packs glued to his heart and can handle the pressure with chuks and lookman supporting both Bruno and Osayi


The goal is to use both chuks and lookman on the wings and playing deep in our half to spread out the Morocco for Iwobi to play and for Osimehn to Pounce.


But what did Chelle do,... He stood there on the sidelines for 90 minutes watching helplessly like he did against Congo.

He might be a great pre-game tactician but very poor in-game manager..... Something Anceloti is a genius at


Frankly, as a Coach.... Ability to read games and change the tempo to your terms is very very important else you might not go far in becoming great

Lolz. With this your formation, it will be free passage for Morocco through the middle. And hey they would have won by 2:0 before end of 120minute.

minfelix:
if he had scored evem with that non chalant attitude, we would have won this match🤣🤣….bro if SA keeper had caught that Omeruo penalty, we go cook Omeruo for life…have you gone back to watch that Omeruo own again…very childish penalty…he was so lucky Williams went the wrong way…that Omeruo penalty too whack and be like secondary school penalty

Omeruo penalty was not wack. He plays it only after keeper has fallen. Take time and watch. That's how he always plays.

TheGoodJoe:
The point is breaking play.

The Moroccans were not the side to play the possession game and keep the ball. If not they would have easily dominated possession. They were direct with their play.

The point is us not going to stop them from building from the back.

We sat back and let them do that. Just that when they came, we broke them down. Unfortunately, when we broke them down, we were too far to cause problems.

Gerrit?

There is no way we were going to do that with Morocco. They are a good side. In the second half when we tried thrice, twice they lost-played the ball for throw-in. Once they transitioned well and almost scored from the counter. With Ndidi probably, it would have been different because he would have given better cover.

Ref is the 12th player
Fans the 13th.
We are trying even if we go loose.

AIG07:
I thought you all said, you ain't watching the Super Eagles play again after the DRC heartbreak.

All I see tonight is Love for Father land!

I bin talk am o.
Hope has been raised again and I hope it remain so.

minfelix:
so Eric Chelle sef wan start mind games😂😂

Make e be mind games. Else Moroccongo choke am with press for 1st half

aicon4s:
Maroc 88 was the first AFCON I followed from start to finish. For me it was one of the most competitive AFCONs ever and also marked the beginning of Modern day AFCON.

GROUP A
Morocco (Host)
Algeria
Ivory Coast
Zaire (Now Congo DR)

GROUP B
Egypt (Defending Champions)
Cameroon
Nigeria
Kenya

As at then, with the exception of Kenya the other 7 teams were the big boys of African football. Kenya were riding on the success of their 1987 African games football team of which most of the players were part of their 1988 AFCON squad and so they at least had a fairly descent team.

Nigeria was returning to the AFCON after missing out of the 1986 edition, being eliminated by a Kalusha Bwalya led Zambian team. As an 8 team tournament, then, qualifying for the AFCON was a lot more difficult than it is today.

Algeria and Morroco qualified from Group A while Cameroon and Nigeria qualified from Group B. Of the 4 teams in the semis only Nigeria never had a World Cup experience while Algeria, Morocco and Cameroon were riding on the back of their 1982, and 86 World Cup experiences.

The semi final fixtures & results were:
Cameroon vs Morroco (1:0)
Algeria vs Nigeria (10:11 penalties)

Cameroon and Nigeria met in the final, both teams unbeaten. And Cameroon won 1:0, with goal scored from the penalty spot.

Now to the 2025 AFCON the semi final stage has 4 teams that are all capable of winning the tournament. I see games being won by fine margins and some individual brialliiance from Star players.

For me as a Nigerian fan, going into the Morocco game, I am resting on the fact that the team has improved with each game and also having beaten other North African oppositions like Tunisia and Algeria. It is potentially a tougher game than the 4 previous and if we can beat Morocco I don't think Senegal/Egypt can stop us.

This narrative is incomplete, if you don't mention that Nigeria scored a clear goal that was fraudulently adjudged to be offside while the penalty Cameroon had was controversial.

Arthur Okonkwo with 2 penalty save and Wrexham advances in FA cup