₦airaland Forum

It would have been less painful if we had just crashed out back in Uyo. At least we'd know where we stand.

What's even more hurtful is that this is DR Congo will not be seeded, and they'll likely crash out against teams like Panama and Costa Rica. They weren't impressive. We just made them look good.

Akinsanmiro was sorely missed. Although then again, even if he was invited, I doubt he'd have done much given the way Chelle set up the team.

I'm willing to give Chelle one more chance till after the AFCON. Winning the AFCON is non-negotiable. We can't lose the World Cup and simultaneously lose out on a fourth AFCON title.

Going to be long before I recover from this.

PS. Isn't it ironic that the formation we've been clamoring for since time immemorial is what did us in at the end? 😂

Just look at them. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Woh- I don off stream. See you guys after the game.

Or tomorrow sef

Bassey picked today of all days to be shaky at the back?

Men, this team isn't looking like World Cup material so far.

Imagine saying Osayi dey this game. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Goke7:
We must not concede again, or else it's over

I'm telling you. If we concede, make we just go face AFCON.

Onyedika needs to come in at this point. I don't know what else to say. This is a huge downgrade from both Benin and Gabon games.

I hope this Akinsanmiro snub won't come back to bite us

Congolese are looking even more dangerous than anticipated. This will probably be a long night.

Lookman needs to step out for now abeg. This first half has been atrocious.

ONYEKA NA BEAST!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Let's get it. 🔥🔥🔥

Please, everybody...

Pray for Nwabali. 🤧🤧🤧

mostob:
That back four sha...

Safe to say both teams will be coming out guns-a-blazing, as is fitting for an African final.

Wait, who is Adike in the starting line up?

Dannyxy:
benin match was the most important…

Infact this is one of our easiest…

I meant in the playoffs route.

Overall, from qualifiers to the playoffs, yes Benin game was the most important.

This is the most important match on our route to the mundial. God give us this day. 🤧

Meliforme:
Many are calling for Ndidi to be dropped, the same for Nwabali.
I pity these people.

Anything that Osasu guy says I dey believe am o. That guy dey get better connections.

If he says Ndidi is eligible, then eligible he is.

We haven't lost to a nation below tier 1 in African football during a crucial knockout stage since the 80s (possibly longer). These are the teams that have beat us in a knockout stage:

1984 - Cameroon
1988 - Cameroon
1990 - Algeria
1992 - Ghana
2000 - Cameroon
2002 - Senegal
2004 - Tunisia
2006 - Ivory Coast
2008 - Ghana
2010 - Ghana
2019 - Algeria
2021 - Tunisia
2023 - Ivory Coast

All of these teams are definitely tier 1 African teams.

When we do face teams lesser than tier 1 in do or die games, we must prevail.

Two examples: 1994 AFCON where we beat Zambia and 2013 AFCON where we beat Burkina Faso.

minfelix:
yes oo Costa Rica welcomes table toppers Honduras in their home, a win for them qualifies them directly and Honduras another werey team will have to enter the playoffs

Jamaica welcomes table toppers curacao today in their home, a win for them qualifies them to the worldcup and curacao drops to playoff spot..


omo make we first win DRC oooo chim🤦🏽‍♀️🤦🏽‍♀️🤣

It's on the 18th they'll play oo.

minfelix:
Another Permutations for today 🤣🤣 ladies and gentlemen
1. Nigeria 🇳🇬 should plsss win DRC oo😭
2. Panama 🇵🇦 should pls win and leave that play off zone, they look like a threat in the intercontinental playoff
3. UAE should try and win oo, they are more of a minnow than Iraq, make dem just shock Iraq
4. Jamaica should pls beat Curacao 🇨🇼 and qualify straight to the worldcup , Jamaica in the playoff is also a threat,

i will be licking my lips 😋 if Nigeria wins DRC hopefully today and i see playoff teams as follows
UAE
Curacao
Bolivia
New Caledonia

Panama will be a seeded team since they're the only ones above us, so we won't cross paths at all.

Teams I want to avoid: Jamaica and Costa Rica. These are the only teams I can see wey fit pour sand for our garri in March.

zhike:
Nigeria should just loose for peace sake, so that Nigeria government can focus on eradicating hunger.

I wonder what football has to do with the effectiveness of the Nigerian government from a causal standpoint. If anything, developing our football is one of the fastest ways to eradicate hunger in this country. Hosting the AFCON alone could generate millions in tourism and trade, as seen with Egypt in 2019.

The fact that people like you see football as a mere distraction is the reason why we fail to progress in this country. Because of mindsets like this.

Retracted

Subzerooo:
They piped African countries in recent friendlies, Gattuso said that Europe should have more slots in the world cup as opposed to African countries

Rewatching that Japan game, they were too good sha. Even the Gattuso wey dey talk, his Italy fit collect 2-3 goals unreplied from that Japanese side.

I didn't see Haller, Kessie, Adingra etc. and the other usual suspects in Ivory Coast's game against Saudi Arabia. I'm guessing they used their B-team, so I guess the result there is slightly forgivable, but it may reveal a lot about Ivory Coast's squad depth. Afterall our own B-team drew with Russia.

Na the Egypt own wey muzz me. Many of their top players featured. Salah was even present. 😂

JohnBullMySon:


I believe we will beat DRC, but this your analysis was very annoying to read sha. How is Gabon better than DRC?

So, they should beat a studded Cameroun team 3-0 in a knockout game? Have you looked at Cameroun's squad before? They are just not in-form, but the squad has quality.

DRCs squad quality btw is way higher than Gabon, by squad obviously should be among top 10 in Africa. DRCs group was also arguably the toughest in the first stage.

Blatant lie. DRC's group wasn't tough for shiiit.

Nigeria had South Africa, Benin and Zimbabwe, even though Zim were surprisingly terrible in the qualifiers.

Ghana had Comoros, Madagascar and Mali.

Egypt had Burkina Faso and Guinea Bissau.

Cameroon had Libya, Cape Verde and Angola.

Gabon and DRC's group were identical - one top tier team: Senegal for DRC, Ivory Coast for Gabon. The other teams in the group were godawful with no pedigree.

Gabon arguably performed better because they dominated their group more convincingly with higher numbers of goals, unlike DRC who won many of their group games with slim margins except the one against South Sudan that they won 4-1.

H2H, did you know Gabon has a better record than DR Congo with 4 wins against 2?

That aside, both teams are roughly equal now in terms of strength. Gabon has the better attack. DRC has the better defense plus more well rounded players.

Either way, we're going to wipe them. I'm not expecting it to be a demolition like it was with Benin and Gabon, but I honestly don't see DRC keeping a clean sheet. I also don't see them scoring more than 1 goal.

Mujtahida:
On match day, it's best to stay on this thread and YouTube than on X.

On X, the ignorance of the average Nigerian fan is shocking. You'd see people who have not followed the SE for years making stupid comments. You go just weak.


And then again how is it possible to be an avid club fan but feel nothing for the SE?

See this post 👇👇. See this person mentioning Tosin Adarabioyo instead of Semi. They don't even know our players.

Lol. Normally X is for post-match banter and tomfoolery. 😂

For analysis and reasoned predictions, I rely on Nairaland SE thread and few choice channels on YouTube like EaglesTracker and Football Fans Tribe.

Even this Nairaland, the only place with intelligent contributors is on this thread. If you go to other threads and see the rubbish they write, you'll just weak.

joelsteron:
Congo is not better than Russia and Jamaica

Exactly and we played those two teams with a Chelle squad still in its infancy.

"We'll throw ourselves at Nigeria!" Sure. Great idea. Lol.

If I recall correctly, Gabon has the best attack out of all the opponents we've faced in this playoffs, and they still couldn't crack our defense. I was thinking DRC would sit deep and hit on the counter. If these guys are thinking of playing attacking football with Super Eagles, we might have another repeat of the Nigeria vs Benin game in Uyo. Give us this day o Lord. 😂

I hope it's not mind games sha.

I'm not comfortable with the way the DR Congo national team twitter account is giving steady updates on Ndidi's eligibility to play. I wonder how crucial he is to the execution of their tactics. We need to be careful sha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8OAGwC2Eak&pp=ugUEEgJlbg%3D%3D

Do y'all agree?

mostob:
Make dem patch am up. Give am agbo iba (herbs) if possible. I can't bear watching Okoye for now abeg.

I swear.

Okoye can start in the Egypt friendly. In fact I want him to start there, to see how far he's come in the NT.

But for the playoffs, omo, I'm not 100% on board with Okoye for now.

https://dailypost.ng/2025/11/15/2026-wcq-playoff-nwabalis-fitness-uncertain-ahead-of-nigeria-vs-dr-congo-final/

Who has seen this?

Omo. Nwabali fit no start o.

I know I get beef with am because of certain antics of his, but hmmm. I hope Okoye won't get jittery again if he has to step in.

Mujtahida:
Be careful.

Sorry sir. 🤧