₦airaland Forum

I saw this posted on another thread.

This is what I was saying about Naija actually underperforming at AFCON. We have more SF appearances than Egypt but they have 4 more titles. Even when you take out their 1957 and 1959 wins when Naija wasn’t even a nation, they still have 5.

My prayer is we close that gap by first beating SA then winning the final.

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Most #AFCON Semi-final APPEARANCES!

🇪🇬 Egypt - 15
🇳🇬 Nigeria - 16
🇬🇭 Ghana - 14
🇨🇮 Ivory Coast - 10
🇨🇲 Cameroon - 9
🇩🇿 Algeria - 7
🇹🇳 Tunisia - 7
🇿🇲 Zambia - 6
🇲🇱 Mali - 6
🇨🇩 DR Congo - 5
🇪🇹 Ethiopia - 5
🇲🇦 Morocco - 5
🇸🇳 Senegal - 5

Marjoribanks:
With Bassey at LWB, we will dismantle SA 4 nil.

Bassey doesn’t have the lungs to play full 90 at LWB. He’ll tire very quickly.

Goke7:
This is laughable and not a mature point. Nigeria is not the only footballing nation in Africa. If you're indeed the best team in a tournament with the best of quality players your chances are higher with exceptions of biased refereeing and other factors. A semi-final finish especially now in a 24 nation-tournament will always be a big deal. You guys should relax, the NFF that gave Paseiro a semi-final target knows this.

Yes, we are a big soccer-playing nation in Africa but we've never been the best and that's a fact. How many times have we won the CAF Champions League, what's the state of your local league for you to have won Afcon 10 times?

1. I disagree that the point is laughable. Celebrating just getting to the SFs should not be enough. Remember, only 2 of 16 SF appearances were when the tourney was expanded to 24 teams. Prior to that, it is was when the tournament was 8/16 teams.

2. Nigeria should be going into every AFCON with the expectation to win. That’s what big nations with expectations do! Brazil will never go into a WC just targeting to reach the SFs.

3. We are big footballing nation but we have to now have a winners mindset. No other nation has been the SFs more than we have, shows we are good enough to reach the final four, but it seems to be a disconnect in converting that into titles

MetalJigsaw:
You seem to not understand his input.

I do understand his point. All I’m saying is I want us to beat SA in AFCON and in WCQ, both legs.

Ppogbae:
Having the most semi finals appearances isn't something that I'm proud of especially considering all those appearances have only converted to 3 trophies.

We must win this tournament at all costs. My short term wish is that we catch up to Cameroon in this decade.

Same thing I said. 16 SFs for 7 finals and only 3 titles is massive underperformance.

There should be 1 title for every three SFs imo

No point changing a winning team at the semi finals. Only thing I’d say is we need to sub out our players when they get tired. A fully charged Moffi for 20 mins is better than a tired Osimhen for 20 mins.

The time to have experimented was in our friendlies before AFCON or even in the last 30 mins against EQG.

Two 1-0 wins will bring us the title but of course, we’d all want a larger margin of victory.

Let us beat SA first before we talk about trophy. I think we’ll beat SA, but people have valid concerns about our inability to take the chances we create.

In football, you don’t take your chances and you’ll likely be punished. See Cape Verde.

drDoom3:
Better to have a fresh James Milner on the pitch than an exhausted/injured Messi.

You get sense. Reminds me of the 2019 UCL Final. Kane was unfit and had no business playing that final over a fresh and in-form Lucas Moura.

In this life, getting things done early always gives you the most options and flexibility.

Same thing for football. Take your chances and go 3-0 before HT and you can now start subbing in different players to get game time.

In WCQ, there are 10 games to play, if you focus on winning all your games from MD1, by MD7 you can realistically have qualified for the WC

safarigirl:
Qualifiers are a long way out.

Make we first clear them as dem dey front so. I will not even mind them getting one over us at the WCQ, as long as we don't lose to them on this stage.

Never! I want SE to beat them here, and home and away in wcq. We shouldn’t even joke with wcq. We should look at each match as a knockout game. Must win games

Goke7:
you can't win in every match no matter how good you are either by scoring goals or defending. It's all down to what happens on the field and how the match goes. play tiki-taka, play defensive, anyhow at the end of the day, it's the result at the end of the match that determines the outcome. All we can do is put in the efforts

Yes, it’s the result but I would rather defend a 3-0 lead than a 1-0 lead. Example, Mali. Had they taken their PK and scored the 2nd, they likely are in the final.

Goke7:
if you can't score nko, holding to your lead is also part of the game and a display of your awareness and discipline. Tournaments are for the brave

That one dey but all it takes is one slip in concentration and that 1-0 can turn to 1-1 as we saw in the CIV game.

Imagine that Angola shot that hit post actually went in, would have been a different game.

What I’m seeing from all these matches is we need to be clinical. If you get 3 chances, convert them and do it quickly. When you kill the game early, you kill the opponent’s spirit to fight.

I like that our defense is solid but holding a 1-0 for 60+ mins still keeps the opponent in it. Don’t get one goal and just sit back. Finish the game

Goke7:
don't you think civil wars and political instability might have affected the development of their football over time? Both countries have seen shege pro max in terms of wars, hunger, drought and famine

I do think its part of it, that’s why I said it can’t happen today. Other nations have passed them by.

safarigirl:
How many African countries were even part of the qualifying campaign? People wey still dey fight for independence or were going through one civil war or the other, go come dey follow you drag football.

Correct! That’s why I don’t give Egypt as much credit for their 7 AFCONs. Their first two were when most of us be farmers. They were playing against part time fishermen and carpenters.

Ethiopia and Sudan won AFCONs in the early 60s. In what world do they want to try winning AFCON in this day and age.

safarigirl:
And winning the AFCON when it was an 8-team tournament is a different vibe from winning when it was 16 and then 32-teams

Winning an 8-team AFCON means there’s more weight on the qualifying campaign. 8 team AFCON is essentially a starting the tournament at the QFs

Oasis007:
Nigeria have participated in 19 AFCON tournaments and have reached the semi-finals 16 times.

To be very, very honest. That is underperformance from us. 16 Semis, 7 finals but just 3 AFCON titles to show for it.

I know it’s football and no be for mouth but for every 3 semi final appearances, there should be a title to show for it. Naija should be on at least 5 AFCON titles.

My prayer is this:

1. The boys win this title
2. We use the title win to build a dynasty akin to Egypt 06-10 and carry that energy to the WC

We shouldn’t do like in 2013 when we won the AFCON then didn’t qualify for the next two tournaments.

Many of our key players are still relatively young and have stable careers in top leagues. They aren’t like the journeymen of prior SE teams.

If you win this AFCON, you have all the ingredients to go on to challenge for the 2025 AFCON as well and you’ll have a squad with the experience of winning a major tournament.

The likes of Ndidi still dey, Boniface is there. Opportunity for Orban, Tella, Tosin to be integrated as well.

We just have to win this title and build on from there.

jihday:
Onyedika for who? Moffi for who? I won’t even swap Simon or Ademola for Nacho because he doesn’t have Simon industry and Lookman is so high on confidence

Moffi for Osimhen. Osimhen was getting very tired.

Onyedika for Onyeka or for Simon. Simon has work rate, yes, but I’d have liked for us to have more midfield control.

All in all, we learn and we move.

Joebie:
Omo!!!

Gbam!!! I said it in one of my other group chats. We have created enough chances to win all, if not most of our games by a 2 goal margin.

Clinical offensive and a no-gree defense will win championships.

Again, defense wins championships but If we are going to start dropping deep to defend, then we need fresh legs.

At the 65/70 min I’d have liked to see another midfielder introduced. Move from 3-4-2-1 to 3-5-2. Choke the midfield and hold ball.

Yusuf needed to come in earlier. I think Onyedika was needed as well.

But we also need to take our chances better than we did.

Anyway, good one from the boys. Hope they rest well for the SFs they’ll need it.

Odunayaw:
Angola was a real test.

But it really shouldn’t have been. Osimhen had no business being offsides for his goal. The chance that Lookman played him on should have been converted.

Sanusi had a good chance as well.

I’ve said it all the time, through out this AFCON we’ve created enough chances to win every game by at least 2 goals.

JP needs to freshen things up. Try KC, Onyedika, or Moffi.

Let’s go. Back in the final four

Need three midfielders to just hold ball and end this game. Absorbing pressure that we don’t need to.

Osimhen was too lax with that finish. You have to bury that and end the game, one time

We need another midfielder. We also need a 2nd goals. Zaidu not doing enough on his wing.

Outside of the first save by Nwabili, we’ve kept Angola at bay. But our attack needs to be sharper. Passing in the final third has been poor

Angola is a must win for us on Friday. No more, no less. This is the real business end now. Every game moving forward is a final of increasing importance.

Tinneh:
His insistence on 4-4-2 was the problem, we just didn't have the right personnel to effect that formation, see how the team is performing now that he's flexible with his tactics

GBAM! Our issue with JP was his insistence on the 442 even when the results were poor. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. This was the issue

Many on Nairaland have advocated to moving to a back 3 to shore up the defense and employ the WB talent we are blessed with properly.

Again. Defense wins Championships. Great work from the boys, especially with no shots on target.

We will need this kind of defensive steel because Angola dey tear shot and Uzoho na better basket.

I’d say for next match, move Bassey to LB and then maybe, maybe, bring in another midfielder for Simon.

Iwobi should be playing closer to Lookman and Osimhen

Someone called it, Bassey to LB. Zaidu is good defensively but offers nothing going forward.

Amazing cross by Bassey

Lookman gats shoot that thing one time. Clear goal scoring opportunity to kill the game.

Take off Simon and bring in Yusuf or Onyedika. Need more midfield control.