₦airaland Forum

ufotunang:
..but according to news.. they said FIFA can reduct 3 points away from south Africa for playing an ineligible player against lesotho..the player already had 2 yellow cards..so FIFA is investigating the matter

Very true, but from what I read, there is 24hrs to file a petition and I don’t think Lesotho or Nigeria filed in time.

It is a FIFA rule but I wouldn’t be is Motsepe tries to influence the verdict

jazzman7711:
Nigeria will be in the World Cup.

Relax.

SA is too far ahead of us

WC dream is over. So slack in defense.

B2B WC will be missed.

Abeg let’s do something in AFCON

Starhearts:
Ur opinion is baseless

Na you sabi ball pass? Everyone is allowed to have an opinion

Just let’s get a goal and move. We’ve been pressing them

Starhearts:
If naa soo u sabi coach , why u no apply 4 d super Eagle job , wen d post fey vacant ...

Mumu boy

So I’m not allowed to have an opinion. Abeggy

Chuks needs to be subbed. Onyedika for Simon.

Move Simon to the RW, Lookman to LW. Iwobi to 10

Lookman needs to hit that first time

SA will drop points somewhere but we simply have to win our remaining 5 games. Simple

semid4lyfe:
I've been waiting for this hat trick since like forever.

Congratulations to our Starboy and I hope he can replicate this form and goals in our WCQs

He has scored a hattrick for Napoli on two occasions if remember correctly. Both of them against Sassuolo.

What I like most about this his performance is he was not offside even once this match.

Also, a very clinical performance from him.

21 touches, 5 shots, one hit bar, one was blocked, the other three were goals.

BankyGee:
Sadiq Umar GOAL!
🇳🇬🦅

The move to Valencia has proven very good for him thus far.

Hanibal:
These cannot be down to Schick's form... Something else is going on

Boniface may have upset the higher ups at Bayer. There was also that his debacle with Buendia. There is definitely something behind the scenes

LoverOfEvil:
Provisional list
Wait till they remove some names

KC, Musa and Aribo should be removed from the final list.

To still be calling up Musa in 2025 is a sackable offense in my humble opinion.

maidaboi:
Beautiful goal by Sadiq Umar

I said Valencia would be a good move for him. Hope he continues to find form.

Sugarboyy:
Watching Galatasaray match today, I noticed that his team mates are most times slow in releasing the ball to Osimhen...it's part of his numerous offsides

This is true, but there are many times he just doesn’t hold his run well.

Osimhen had an amazing performance.

Once he fixes this his offside wahala he will be an even greater menace.

TheLoneCitizen:
By the way, Caraggher was right.

AFCON is still not a big enough tournament to decide the Ballon d'Or.

No, he was wrong because he said AFCON is not a major tournament. That is where Micah and Daniel corrected him. It is a major tournament as it is a FIFA sanctioned confederation tournament similar to Euros and Copa America.

Within international football, major has an objective definition. If he said it's not a quality tournament, that is a different matter up to interpretation. But when talking about factual matters, it helps to be: factual.

JohnBullMySon:
Then you didn't listen to Jamie cause he never even mentioned AFCON. He said he thinks Salah is finding the Balon d'or diffcult because he doesn't play for a team in a major event like the Euros.

My brother, stop it! Stop defending what he did not say.

He said Salah doesn't play in a major tournament. AFCON is a major tournament, finish!

AFCON is a FIFA sanctioned confederation tournament that includes:

Euros, Copa America, AFCON, Asian Cup, Gold Cup and OFC Nations Cup.

That is it.

If we want to talk about prestige, that is a different matter. He said something wrong, was corrected, but doubled down on his incorrect statement. I don't know why this is so hard to grasp.

JohnBullMySon:
You have more slots than South America yet South America has won 2 of the last six tournaments.

We take the best five to the WC so If African teams were that good, they should be knocking out European teams. Yet African teams have only made it to the quarters twice.

Three times. But again, we’ve only had 5 of the best African teams since 98. We have been underrepresented in the WC for a long time. 2026 should be a better gauge of where we stand.

JohnBullMySon:
Remember that the context of that discussion was the Balon d'or. Carragher said that he feels part of the reason Salah has not won it is because he plays for Egypt. He didn't even mention AFCON, competition or popularity. It is similar to saying that the Dutch league top scorer will find it hard to win the golden ball. What is wrong in that statement?

No, the issue I have with Jamie is he said AFCON is not a major tournament. That is categorically false.

As for AFCON not being a major factor in B’dor voting, that is a separate issue in of itself. I agree that winning the Euros will have more sway than the AFCON all else being equal but that was not what Jamie said.

Let’s just focus on what was said. If he wanted to add context to his statement, he should have done so.

lordofstrings:
I thought Galatasaray bought morata
I can't see his name on the bench

Injured

JohnBullMySon:
If not for the fact that his statement is stepping on the sensitivities of black people, what he said is not far from the truth. I appreciate how far we've come, but you cannot say that AFCON is equal to Euros. We are not there yet. If he said the same thing about CONCACAF nobody will argue with it.

If I tell you that the Belgian League is as big as the EPL would you agree?

My brother, I think you are conflating big/prestigious with major.

Big is subjective. Major is objective.

The FA cup and the UCL are both major trophies. UCL is seen as a “big” trophy to the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd, Real Madrid, Barca, Juve, etc. But they may not regard their respective FA cups as a “big” trophy even though it is a major trophy.

The AFCON is CAF’s premier men’s tournament so it is indeed a major trophy in the same way the Euros and Copa America are.

However, many in Europe and S. America don’t view it as a “big” trophy.

We in Africa view the AFCON has a major AND big trophy. Ask Egyptians who dem go praise pass? Salah or Aboutrika?

What Jamie said was categorically wrong. No two ways about it.

If we want to argue about the level of competition between AFCON and Euros, then that is entirely a different argument. But we Africans should stand firm in the truth, this is not about black man sensibilities.

yinkeys:
Napoli still have to play inter
Inter will definitely nick that one
I think Atalanta still have the toughest fixtures left though
All they have to do is take every incoming game as a final, win 11 of the 12 games remaining & the Scudetto is theirs

You’re right. Atalanta still have Juve, Lazio, Roma, Inter, Fiorentina and Milan to play.

But if they approach all those matches as cup finals, they can win. They’ve already had a run of games where they won 11 games straight. They have to replicate that form now.

I think Napoli vs Inter will be a draw. Inter still have the Coppa Italia and UCL to play in so their squad depth will be seriously tested.

I'm hearing Juve is interested in Lookman. I hope Lookman can take Atalanta towards the title charge now that La Dea is within 3pts of Inter and still have Inter to play in a few weeks.

Gasperini is not a good man manager. He had no reason to single out Ademola like that in public. Do it behind closed doors if you must.

Jieta2:
Oga no body bought data for you what ever you feel like to say please do.

What is even special about Adarabioyo, the same guy I watch that is error-prone, someone that lacks confidence, I was so disappointed when I watched him play like this is the rubbish we are even begging to play for us. We have players who are better than him aina, bassy have been exceptional this season.

I look at these things through two lenses.

1) Is he better than our current crop of CBs
2) Does he give us quality depth in a specific position

If a player can get one or two of those things, he should be included in the conversation of the SE team.

Philosopher1979:
Sadiq Umar scores.

That’s a big goal for him and Valencia. The point takes them out of the drop zone and it’s a derby match, too.

I said the move to Valencia would be good for him. I hope he gets back to his Almeria form.

Jieta2:
If Lazio is not a mid-table team then tell me how you want me to rate them. A team that has not achieved anything in more than ten to twenty years how do you call such a team?

A mid-table team is one that constantly finishes within 10-12 within a 20 team league.

Lazio is one of the bigger clubs in Italy. Since 2010 they’ve won 2 Coppa Italias and 3 Italian Supercups.

They have not finished lower than 9th in the period and regularly challenge for UCL and Europa League football. They usually average 5-7th place in the league.

At the end of the day, only one team can win the Scudetto and when you have Inter, Juve and Milan in the league with more resources, it will be difficult to win the league.

To say Lazio is a mid-table team is outlandish. Lazio is one of Italy’s 7 seven sisters. A term used to signify the biggest 7 clubs that challenged for the title and European honors in the 90s. That list has changed a bit but it is generally recognized as:

Juve, Milan, Inter, Lazio, Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina.

It is akin to the “Big 6” in EPL of United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City and Tottenham.

An actual “mid-table” team in Italy is Torino or Udinese.

Not all of our boys will make it to the highest of the high but even still, we want them playing in a competitive team.

Lazio is 5th in the Serie A and is level on points with Fiorentina for the final UCL spot. Lazio is also playing in Europa league, too. Very good experience for Dele.

Let’s analyze based on facts and not sentiment.

Samueltemi337:
Osimhen is not the only super eagles player that needs improvement
You should focus on others too

And the goal against SA wasn't ruled out for offside
If you watched the match you will know why the goal was ruled out

You’re correct. I misspoke, it was the match against Angola. He scored the header but it was ruled off. He scores that and we kill the game at 2-0.

I’m particular about Osimhen because I think of all the Super Eagles he has the highest ceiling. I want him to do well because I know he has the capacity to do so.

Samueltemi337:
We don hear this thing reach 100 times from you
It's time you send Osimhen a dm and tell him

So I should just keep quiet when there’s obviously room for him to improve.

I want to see my compatriots doing well.

When he came to Turkey I thought he’d improve on that attribute owing to the lower profile of the Turkish League but that hasn’t materialized.

This lack of offside awareness can keep a lot of big clubs away from him, especially in the Prem where the speed of play is much faster.

I mean we saw it at the last WCQ against Ghana, he had an offside goal that could have been pivotal for us. Same thing in AFCON against Angola. He stays onside for that his goal and we don’t have to sweat to see out the game

AndSunGorilla:
I am hoping Osimhen scores today. Came close à couple of times with some half chances.

I really hope so, too. But the biggest thing I want from him is to improve his positioning. I don’t think he has gone a single game this season without getting caught offside. He really needs to fix this.

He’s played 20 times for Gala this season and has been caught offsides 22 times. That’s far too many.

Philosopher1979:
Its a typical african black mans problem
A black man does not want to set records or break new grounds…..

While I agree with you on this, it’s easier to say you want to break records / break new grounds when you live in a society where your daily bread is not in question or you are already relatively comfortable before you start football or whatever profession you are in.

€15M is what some players earn their footballing careers. Boniface can make 10 times that in a few years.

Who is to say he doesn’t want to use his wealth in Saudi to break new grounds elsewhere eg funding research for cancer, etc.

I would have liked him to stay in a top Euro league, too, but I know not everyone’s ambitions in life are the same.