AFCON
WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH! SUPER EAGLES BLEW AWAY FOUR GOAL LEAD!
Super Eagles broke the heart of Nigerian football fans Friday night as they blew away a four goal lead over Sierra Leone and merely scrapped to a 4-4 draw in their Match day 3 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match at the Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin.
It was nightmarish as they struggled to contain the suddenly reawakened Sierra Leoneans who looked very promising when the reverse leg holds next week.
Even though the Super Eagles with seven points still lead the Group L, their stature was badly bruised. In three matches of the series, they have conceded seven goals indicating the appalling defence and goalkeeping.
Tactically, the team did not exhibit any trace of cohesiveness even as the coach, Gernot Rohr who has been in charge for over five years was bereft of ideas as the match turned nightmarish.
Early goals by Alex Iwobi and Victor Iwobi gave false hope of possible annihilation of bottom of the ladder-placed Sierra Leone. That was even further fuelled by Iwobi scoring the third goal and Samuel Chukwueze making it four all within 30 minutes.
They began an amazing comeback by the Sierra Leoneans. Kwame Quee pulled a goal back four minutes before half time.
Nigerian fans probably may not have seen the handwriting on the wall as the first half ended 4-1. More trouble came as Alhaji Kamara pulled another goal back to make it 4-2. There and then, the panic mode was activated in the Nigerian team and its technical bench.
Then Mustapha Bundu made it 4-3 to set more confusion in the Nigerian team. Alhaji Kamara then levelled up in the amazing come-back for the Sierra Leoneans who were even threatening to get the winner.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
Anthony Joshua seeks world title and redemption against Dubois
Beckenbauer to have street named after him near Munich’s Allianz Arena
Diamond League raise 2025 prize money to over $9 million
Breaking! Uzoho suspended from Super Eagles’ next match with Sierra Leone
No longer Super League as CAF changes name of its new clubs competition
AIU releases its report on Tobi Amusan
-
AFCON1 week agoAustin Eguavoen remains the ‘Big Boss’, says NFF
-
AFCON1 week agoRwanda newspaper gives 5 lessons gleaned from Rwanda-Nigeria clash
-
AFCON1 week agoPresent and Past as CAF Coaches Symposium unites Rohr, Peseiro and Eguavoen
-
CAF Confederation Cup1 week agoEnyimba continues unbeaten run against Burkina Faso clubs
-
AFCON4 days agoLibya sacks coach ahead of AFCON qualifying back-to-back matches with Nigeria
-
CAF Champions League1 week agoEnugu Rangers in slim CAF Champions League win over Angola’s Sagrada Esperanca
-
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL1 week agoFalconets crash out from U-20 Women’s World Cup
-
Governing Bodies6 days agoStorm in CAF over proposed statutes amendments