₦airaland Forum

ChrisKels:
No disrespect to Benji but Nwaiwu is a very strong contender for that position unlike Igoh Ogbu, Awaziem and co.

Not a big fan of Ajayi but he did a good job in this AFCON.

Bassey, Benji, Nwaiwu and Ajayi are my choices for any team list for now.

Ekong also had a good AFCON last time and he retired because he was past it already, Ajayi has been good but its time to give other younger prospects a chance going forward.

TheSuperNerd:
I am just smiling at the prospect of Benjamin Frederick's return to the RCB role in Chelle's 4312/442 diamond. Chisos! It is earth-quaking.

In this setup, this pair would easily morph into possibly the most press resistant CB pair in Africa. We will invite your press and beat through and around u like u dont exist.

You have these two and buildups takes a new dimension from the back as Benjamin can not only intercept danger early but also drive into space and break lines himself.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am already in 2027 Afcon. I can see the first game play out.

This team is in its prime. They will touch the final in 2027 as long as Chelle is retained. By 2027, Chelle would be nearly 2.5yrs in the Super Eagles job. The Soaking will be complete before Afcon 2027.

Defence looks set already, and there are others like Chibuike Nwaiwu whom the Trabzonspor fans are waxing lyrical about from his debut I presume

Trabzonspor'un yeni stopero Chibuike Nwaiwu'nun oynadığı son 4 maçta girdiği aksiyonların tamamı pic.twitter.com/a6ZJBUjlT4

— Emir (@EY61_) January 13, 2026

And there are others like Emmanuel Uchenna, Vince Osuji | CB | 19yo
🇳🇬 Honest Ahanor | CB | 17yo
🇳🇬 Endurance Alade | CB | 20yo
🇳🇬 Benjamin Frederick | RCB | 20yo
🇳🇬 Emmanuel Okereke | RCB | 22yo

All in their prime age to add to our CB depth and assuredly led by a colossus like Bassey.

Question remains, what about our midfield? Are we going to keep depending on Ndidi and Iwobi all the time (both players are our veteran leaders but are in their twilight years as they approach their 30's and won't pack the same mileage as younger players)...I wonder who those younger midfield prospects ready to deputize Iwobi, Ndidi and even Onyeka. Hopefully we get to see more of Nnadi and Akinsanmiro against Egypt on Saturday sha.

Omo the vile comments on Chukwueze's IG page is nauseating, at this point I won't blame most of these guys if they fail to honor anymore future call up's, even some idiots on X don turn him miss to tribalism against Igbos. Nigeria is truly a disgusting mess, football wey dey give us joy some morons don use stupidity kill am.

Maybe we should just allow only players from a particular section of the country fill up all the team selection slots make we rest, I'm done with the whole rubbish.

Morocco, Senegal and CIV got the best of their dual nationals and see how those players have elevated them to the next level...we are still here struggling to even get a nearly 30 year old Tosin to play for us lmao 🤣😂😂😂

Anyway for the 3rd place game, let's just see all our fringe players against Egypt, let's see more of Nnadi, Usman and Akin in that midfield and Fago, Ejuke and Akor in attack...Ogbu and Awaziem in defence etc, could care less about golden bronze anyways.

The fact that we hinged our disappointing performance yesterday on Ndidi's absence makes it even more pathetic, Ndidi though fair play to him for having a solid tournament is already 29 and isn't particularly Sergio Busquets.. same way we folded against DR Congo when Osimhen was taken out...I mean how long will these excuses continue? we had all these players in the finals against Ivory Coast in 2023 yet failed to muster a decent shot on target if memory serves me right.

Why's the Nigerian mentality so poor especially in key moments? this was the same conundrum even when we had our golden generation in the 90's, outplayed a Baggio led Italy in the '94 world cup only to lose it and crash like a stack of wild cards in the dying embers of the game. 17 semi finals and 8 finals and we have just 3 AFCONs to show for it...two back to back world cup misses, I don't even know which is more painful- losing that world cup ticket to a arguably the worst Ghanaian team we ever played in Abuja, or the PK disaster against a DRC team we scored first against and had the better of the half until we collapsed in the second, now this...

Omo kudos to every Nigeria out there, I don't know how we do it, but we have the thickest skins to trauma walahi, it gets to a point you throw your hands up in hopeless resignation and ask when does it all end...

We go again in the next AFCON- fancy track suits and kits, another Naija motivational "fellow Nigerians I no go let you down" rousing anthem etc, beat all the teams in our groups only to lose to Ghana in the quarters (God forbid sha), but omo I'm just tired abeg.

mrwilliams9:
I just dislike how off we look in this big games. We just look like a team that doesn’t belong…

Yup, not sure it's a coaching issue at this point..we just lack the players with the elite mentality like the Senegals etc when it matters the most at the most crucial stage.

It's psychologically gutting to lose out on a world cup final playoff on PKs after demolishing Benin republic and Gabon...

And then this after all that show against Algeria, these boys can't scam me anymore. Hats off to them for trying, but this is it...it's time to rebuild with younger players like we saw Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal etc do at this tournament, Ademola, Osimhen etc aren't winning shit, they are a generation comparable to Belgiums own.

17 semifinals, 8 finals and ONLY 3 AFCONs is a very diabolical return, the type that makes you question if we are truly cursed?
This isn't a coaching issue anymore, even prime Pep Guardiola can't save this bunch.

TheSuperNerd:
Oh, didnt get that news. Good news then but Chelle and the NFF must still have a sit down.

That one concern them, if they can't give Chelle a serious contract then let serious teams that want him go for him...maybe another interim manager like Eguavoen will take over and waste our time all over again.

I'm used to heartbreaks from Nigerian football to care anymore on what NFF choose to do or not.

Oddly enough this PK upset didn't pain me as much as the world cup one...it is what it is, no team has beaten us in regulation time yet.

TheSuperNerd:
I agree wholly. That Moroccan press has done me strong thing. Technical and Progressive CMs or CDMs are no longer enough... you must have Mass, strong center of gravity.... your physical aggression chart must be tops.

There is a way your midfield will look from a physical POV ehn, and when u are pressed, it is them who will be bouncing off you due to not just your press resistance but your physicality to hold or body them off and escape the press to now let your technical quality shine through.

Akinsanmiro gives me hope but he needs to bulk up more. Christantus Uche is just perfect. Chelle have got to bring him back in and begin showing him the ropes of his diamond formation blueprint.
Ndidi and Onyeka have got the experience, the blueprint and are midfield powerhouses physically.

Iwobi is still key from a "Toni Kroos/Pirlo CREATIVE sense" but he still struggles in physical battles.

Onyedika needs to go step up his physical aggression meter. You cant have that body and not know how to use it in physical battles to ward off pressing opponents.
Even Alhassan Yusuf wey dey small is more aggressive than Onyedika and both have similar technical quality. So that is a slap on Onyedika. That physical aggression aspect.



As for Chelle and the rumored Tunisia offer, this depends on the NFF's discussions with Chelle. I want him to stay but it is not up to me or anyone here and if the man feels he wants to upgrade his financial income then he is free to do so. Nigerian football authorities remain parasites so I would be surprised if they succeed in retaining Eric Chelle. It would be the first good thing they do in 2026.

Bros Tunisia have a new coach already, Chelle goes no where...there are two more AFCONS to play for in 2027/28. Chelle will and should get a long term contract at this point, we will win an AFCON tournament under Chelle.

Bassey, I fucking love you man...prime Keshi has reborn in this lad.

Spainever:
Ivory coast for play good game o

Ivory coast sef dey useless for allowing this toothless Egyptian team score 3 goals on them.

Omo my heart can't take it, I'll hit the gym and leave my phone at home when our game starts

TheSuperNerd:
Match Officials for the Semis is here:

Ghanaian Ref for Nigeria vs Morocco... SA Ref for VAR


Modified: He was the VAR Ref for the Morocco v Cameroon Quarters tie.

The SA VAR Ref was referee for Mali vs Senegal, DRC v Benin & Mali v Tunisia.

This has to be a joke right?

TheSuperNerd:
Sani Suleiman is in Germany for the Medicals!

Finally a player who will permanently retire Simon Moses after this AFCON, this is surely the best career trajectory for one of our U20 players

So nobody get the full match link...na wa o

Nairalandankra:
Nff said they were too broke to go for a white coach...so they asked the guy if he would accept a pay cut to coach Nigeria... Which he did for reasons best known to him.

Turned out to be the best man for Nigeria, I genuinely can't see a way NFF won't extend his contract permanently at this point, except they are just so stupid to lose such an asset...they should just pay the man whatever he's owed and give him an attractive contract.

I'll be gutted if we don deck these guys, we absolutely dominated them in that half and missed some unacceptable chances.

Our Center-back depth looks really good ahead of the next AFCON in 2027

-Bassey
- Frederick
- Nwaiwu
- Igoh Ogbu
- Emmanuel Uchenna (Div 1, yes, but needs to step up to a stronger league).

- * Emmanuel Chukwu
- * Vince Osuji
And Arthur Okonkwo as our reliable GK with an experienced Nwabali

Chelle will hopefully go to that tournament as this year's AFCON winner or finalist with an abundance of exciting pool of players to choose from.

Cameroon had no single shot on target, that has to be a new AFCON record for a quarterfinal game.

I don't like Cameroon but they were screwed over here by some dodgy officiating (something we should prepare for tomorrow). But Cameroon haven't played smart so they played into the antics of Morocco, unfortunately.

Bossoflife25:
The bonus crap was to shift the focus from Osimhen bouhahaa!
Even the NFF is in the know about it!

The players knew their bonus were being processed.

And our dumb journos enabled the crap.

Kog45:
Hmm and we're facing the same Algeria team of 2019 abi, remember Algeria eliminated the same Congo Dr that beat us recently though via penalties.....my man we can only get over Algeria with good tactics like we did in group stage and against Mozambique.

We will beat them and it won't even get to extra time, quote me after Saturday.

Last time we met Algeria in 2019, it was under a rather boring and defensive Rohr coached team thar had a thin and overworked midfield pairing consisting of Ndidi and Etebo (two players who had logged in many hours of football without rest in that tournament), I believe we took only 4 midfielders to that AFCON?

NOW we have a better midfield depth- Iwobi, Ndidi and Onyeka are battle tested and have come of age in experience/chemistry...Onyedika, Bashiru, Nnadi etc off the bench are goal threats...Bassey is a physical specimen and will bully their attackers, our attack- Osi/Lookman/Akor running at you for 90+ minutes? Algeria haven't faced such potency in this tournament, dem go feel am.

We will concede, but we will outscore them and I'm stating here with unapologetic confidence that this game won't get to extra time. Algeria didn't face Lookman, Akor and Osimhen in 2019, it was Ighalo and Musa, they faced Rohr football in 2019 but they will face Chelle football this time- BIG DIFFERENCE.

FiveFootNinja:
So you're proud of going to the World Cup to mark register as a minnow. No wonder you haven't won the AFCON trophy for the last 50 years. Finished dead last in an AFCON qualifying group that had Sudan and Niger Republic. Country of the shameless.

That's if they even get past Jamaica

Holy shit, what a strike!

At the end I trust maturity and better judgement to prevail for Lookman and Osimhen to sort out their differences and hug it out like real men and brothers...the media juggernauts are all up in arms trying to push all sorts of propaganda and stir up more drama, but I know these players have profound love, respect and camaraderie for each other, the heat and passion of the moment just got to them; and that happens to the best of players out there.

No more distractions, Chelle has come out to say he has talked to Osimhen and everything will be settled in-house without all the media drama-hunters scavenging around for headlines. Onwards we go!

Goke7:
Did you watch Mozambique play Cameroon and Ivory Coast? Go and watch the highlights and come back to this conversation

Remind the clown that the defending champions huffed and puffed before managing to score a lone goal against this same Mozambique, or how Cameroon managed a 2-1 win against their team B. Typical of Nigerians to try downplay every impressive win, as if no be a whole Morocco wey manage beat Tanzania 1-0, or how Egypt had to rely on extra-time to beat Benin republic.

If Egypt don't score before the 70th minute then they have played themselves right into Gernot Rohr dangerous terrain, in other words, "They are fuccked".

Tunisia sacked their coach, same man who qualified them to the world cup with an impeccable record...I guess AFCON is a different type of dish.

Mali is probably the most unsavory match-up for Senegal, Mali's defence isn't Sudan and they have the midfield quality to give Senegal problems...that's a game I can see the possibility of a PK happening.

Kilishihunter:
They have been attacking Senegal from the blast of the whistle. They might still lose but this should serve as a lesson to us not to underestimate Mozambique.

E go shock you when Sudan add another goal from a odd counter.

Tunisia vs Mali will be like watching real life torture from the Medieval times