The Super Eagles of Nigeria are set for a crucial test when they face the Panthers of Gabon in the semi-finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup African Qualifiers Playoffs in Rabat, Morocco, on Thursday, 13 November.
Under the guidance of former international defender Thierry Mouyouma, Gabon have impressed in the qualifiers, losing just once in 10 matches. Their mix of experienced campaigners and emerging talents has turned them into one of the continent’s most organised and dangerous sides.
As Nigeria aim to secure a spot in the final, Completesports.com’s ADEBOYE AMOSU highlights five Gabonese players capable of upsetting the Super Eagles’ ambitions in Morocco.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Olympique Marseille, France)
The veteran forward remains Gabon’s undisputed talisman. Aubameyang, who has scored seven times in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, is his country’s all-time leading scorer with 39 goals in 83 appearances.
At 36, the former Arsenal and Chelsea striker still poses a major attacking threat with his sharp movement and finishing instincts. The captain has contributed four goals and five assists in 11 appearances across all competitions for Olympique Marseille this season.
Denis Bouanga (Los Angeles FC, USA)
Bouanga, 30, is renowned for his blistering pace and eye for goal. The Los Angeles FC winger has netted eight times in the qualifiers — only Algeria’s Mohamed Amoura (10) and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah (9) have scored more.
Read Also:2026 WCQ Playoffs: CAF Confirms Venue For Super Eagles Vs Gabon
The former Saint-Étienne star has also been in scintillating form in Major League Soccer this year, registering 24 goals and eight assists in 32 appearances.
Mario Lemina (Galatasaray, Turkey)
Once a youth international for France, Lemina switched allegiance to Gabon and has become one of Mouyouma’s most dependable players.
The 32-year-old Galatasaray midfielder brings experience, composure, and defensive stability to the team. His technical ability and solid passing make him a key figure in controlling the midfield battles that could decide the tie.
Shavy Babicka (Red Star Belgrade, Serbia)
Babicka, 25, adds flair and creativity to Gabon’s attack. Blessed with pace and dribbling ability, he can stretch any defence on his day.
He announced his arrival on the international scene with a debut goal against the Democratic Republic of Congo in June 2022 and has since been a regular feature for the Panthers during the qualifiers.
Jim Allevinah (Angers, France)
Born in France, Allevinah chose to represent Gabon and has become a reliable contributor to the national team. The versatile forward adds attacking depth and has shown his ability to score and create chances.
The 30-year-old has found the net 10 times in 35 appearances for Gabon and will be one of the key players Nigeria’s defence must watch closely.
21 Comments
Good job CSN for pointing out the major danger-points from the Gabonese team. I suggest SE should be wary of anyone the Garbon coach presents on the 13th of November in the semi-final playoffs. Failure to do so may lead to some unpleasant surprises!
So, they are not more than five and goalkeeper is not among the five. Good.
Honestly was surprised Aubemeyang was still playing for Gabon. That, for me, kind of speaks to their dearth of strikers. No 36-year-old would be leading the lines for Nigeria.
I’ve watched a couple of their WCW games on YouTube and I’ll say they’re here and there. Can be dangerous going forward but also porous at the back. And I think the only really strong opponent they had were CIV.
That said, my only worry is their Galatasaray player, Lamine who’ll likely give them all the info they need on stopping Osimhen.
Lemina won’t be a issue. Rohr knew all our players and we all saw what ended the game in Uyo. If we can play as a unit and fight for every ball I don’t see any team stopping in getting the ticket.
Una Don start again abi. When we had, Lesotho, Benin, Zimbabwe, South Africa and the other one, we couldn’t qualify, is it now we are going to find it easy. Please, let’s be focused and level-head and ask God for favour. As far as I am concerned, Nigeria is not better than any play-off team right now. Let’s pray for the team and be humble. No one ever believed that Nigeria would not qualify from our group. I am not putting my whole heart on the team because they can break hearts. But let’s hope for the best.
Arrogance will not do us any good, the number is not important but the individual.
The chance is up for any serious country to grab. Gabon equaly want to qualify and I don’t see any threat to Gabon apart from oshime. They have five we have one.
So let us just low our pride and pick up the ticket first.
I still don’t trust the team (se) yet.
Thumbs up @Wike. Wisdom is your girlfriend. You spoke well.
Thank you Wike. That’s what Kel and I mutually agreed on the other day when he rightly said though the “universe” really appeared to be on our side during the qualifications with the several chances of “returning as prodigal” in the world cup race.
The most disastrous that turned out for our “good” was the SA forfeiture of 3 points. It would have been crazy that we didn’t “progress” in an ordinary group that had Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Benin Republic.
We didn’t win any qualifier Osimhen didn’t play. That means if our November opponent(s) choose(s) to hide him, we might not have a plan B.
And those SECOND PLACED TEAMS know that. Man mark or zonal mark Osimhen and the game is “won”.
Instead of thinking about a plan B (e.g what if Osimhen isn’t fully fit but doesn’t want to disappoint Nigerians by not appearing in the playoffs – he has 3 matches he might feature for full 90 minutes before the world cup games; and before anyone says God forbid, 3 games are too many to not be thinking alternatives), I don’t see any reason why we should be too calm.
Gabon’s Bouanga is lighting up MLS and nearly took the top scorer award of the qualifiers. We should be humble.
All the dailies wrote DRC has called up a “killer squad”. That means no be Lesotho kind of teams we are facing, I pray, over 2 matches.
But which of our players are currently lighting up any league apart from Osimhen? Chukwueze, unfit/match rusty. Simon, just there. Arokodare, hmm. Akor, little info. Tella, out. Nwabali, let’s not go there yet.
In fact, we are missing a few key players already. And we don’t know the kind of list Chelle will prop up. Some people are skeptical of Onuachu who is in form anyway.
It’s about who score more goals than who concedes least because each match once drawn goes to extra time and possibly penalties.
Don’t forget we are draw specialists somehow against “minnows”.
Should we not be worried about how we are facing “almost qualified” playoff teams?
Granted, over 30 years old made the list of Gabon’s star players but do they know the motivation these teams will have facing “struggling Nigeria” according to one South African?
We don’t have any fear factor oh. We scored less, conceded more than all the other 3 teams.
We should even be the least motivated, no thanks to NFF, sorry Cameroon should have that title even though they have a rejuvenated Mbeoma of Man U.
Guy, the hurdles plenty. We should be humble.
Do you equally realise that if any of the sport news papers in gabon Wana talk about the stars in super eagles they will equally mention up to 8 players
@EZOMO, an adage says if people are decieving you then don’t deceive your self.
Let us face it squarely, presently we have no killer squad. They can mention 8 players 9 or even 10. This present se can’t be trustworthy.
We had die hard se players before not the current set of se.
We just bunch of sacadely players if there is any English like that. You all should pardon my grama.
Wike lol lol so it’s gabon that’id having killer squad becos CS mentioned 5 players as star players simply becos they want make sakes abi?
Foeget those ones as it’ is here is so also there .
What make you think those 5 players are Star players when 4 of them are already above 30;
@ wike exactly the point that adage equally applicable to the gabonese too the only star in the gabonese team is abomayeng, not even all the starr mentioned they are all above 30. You just too fast to consume the fact eagkes has only one star player and quickly blv gabonese has 5 star players ,when it’s obvious it’s only one star player they can be the level of osimhen among them , na same same for everybody
Wike the adage is equally applicable to the gabonese also. The only star player they have aboumsnyang .don’t hecfool by what CS writes
Thumbs up @Sly. The sky is the limit of your wisdom. You spoke well.
Yes we have to be humble and realistic but no General leads his troupe to war by deflating their morale and instilling negativity and pessimism into them before the battle!
Why must you think Osimhen should be injured in his next 2 or 3 matches before the playoffs and become unavailable to Chelle and his teammates? Yes Gabon scored tons of goals but they were dealing with 200+ ranked teams- like Seychelles and Burundi- not the caliber of Rwanda, Benin, South Africa or even Zimbabwe in their group! The only real quality team in their group is Ivory Coast, and they beat Gabon to the title.
I don’t think Gabon- ranked at lowly 77 or so by FIFA- is a team SE of Nigeria should fear anyday, anywhere. We can talk of Cameroon and Congo Dr in the next face posing stiff challenge but not Garbon, that is not to say we shouldn’t respect them.
It is always better to boost your morale and be more optimistic than speaking negativity and pessimism into your squad. Yes, we are the highest ranked team amongst the 4 countries in Playoffs semi finals and, at 41 in Fifa ranking we have no reason to fear a 77th ranked team!
The reality on ground is that our current team simply is not strong offensively.
Rohr and Peseiro saw this, and set up the team to grind out results. When Osimhen is unavailable, we become toothless, even though half the team is comprised of forwards. It’s mindboggling to think a team has so many offensive weapons and yet is so impotent going forward. So since we struggle to score, the way forward is obviously to stop the opponent from scoring. This was Peseiro’s driving philosophy at the last Afcon, leading him to deploy 3 center backs. Whatever defensive formation Chelle settles on, this philosophy remains the key to our short term success. In the long run, we can attempt to fix the issue of being poor offensively. But for now, to get past the play offs and have a successful Afcon, DEFENSE IS THE KEY FOR US.
In the past, we controlled games, and pushed our opponents back. Now we don’t have the players to accomplish that, so the tactics must change. Now, it is us who have to adopt low block tactics and look to hit opponents on the counter. We must keep it tight at the back, ensure that we do not concede the midfield to our opponents as we did against CIV in the last Afcon final, and grab the goal scoring opportunities that come our way. We must be ready to work hard to grind out results.
You spoke well, @Pompei. Our real problem isn’t scoring — the last two games proved the Super Eagles can find the net easily. The real headache is protecting the lead. Once we go ahead, we start defending like people guarding puff-puff at a wedding — full panic mode.
Ajayi’s absence worries me. He may not trend, but he’s to the defense what Osimhen is to Super Eagles’ attack, a real backbone. Without him, we look shaky — especially with Ekong’s recent form. Baba just scored another own goal last week that cost his team a match. And knowing Chelle, he might still act funny by dropping Ajayi completely for the playoffs just because of that suspension. That man can be unpredictable.
The playoffs will be tough, no doubt, especially the African leg, but we can handle it if Chelle learns to finish games and keep composure when under pressure. We’ve got the firepower — we just need discipline. If we fix that backline, we’re flying.
@namesake femo, elofokan bale, the SE will fly the Green/White /Green flag at the WC. God pushed us this far and he won’t let us down now, chelle and the boys know what’s at stake and I trust them to deliver us the ticket.
There is no way Gabon can win the Super Eagles. We have the best strikers in Africa. Nigeria will win by 4 goals margin.
The only acceptable draws in my opinion are the draws against SA. We should have won the rest of the games, home and away, and would have finished with 26 points, instead of the 17 we obtained.
With a weak defense, scoring enough goals could have gotten us the world cup ticket. Our goal scoring needs to improve. If we achieve that and strengthen our defense, then we have ourselves a solid team that can mount a strong challenge at the Afcon and the world cup.
Thumbs up Pompei Man. You have said it all. Heaven bless Pompei and all relentless keyboard warriors.