Nigeria’s Super Eagles suffered an embarrassing 3-0 defeat away to Guinea-Bissau, in their second Group L fixture of the 2027 African Cup of Nations qualifier on Tuesday, completesports.com reports.
Goals from Franculino Dju, Mama Balde and Alvaro Djalo, handed Guinea-Bissau their biggest win against the Super Eagles and also help them maintain top spot on six points in the group.
The Super Eagles remain in second position on three points after two games, while Tanzania and Madagascar both have one point.
Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle made changes in his starting lineup with Bright Osayi-Samuel, Frank Onyeka, and Taiwo Awoniyi coming in.
Ademola Lookman had the Super Eagles first chance on 14 minutes as he connected with Alex Iwobi’s clever pass into the box but his left foot strike was well saved by the keeper.
Guinea-Bissau then took the lead on 15 minutes thanks to Dju, who got the ball on the left, cut into his left foot and curled his effort past the stranded Stanley Nwabali.
In the 28th minute the Super Eagles went close through Onyeka who raced into the box from the right but hit the side netting.
With five minutes left to play, Lookman sent in a dangerous cross but the keeper came out to claim, then two minutes later Beto almost doubled the lead but his effort was stopped by Nwabali.
Also Read: AFCON 2027Q: Guinea-Bissau Coach Shrugs Off Pitch Concerns Ahead Of Super Eagles Clash
Before the start of the second half the Super Eagles made two changes with Moses Usor and Moses Simon replacing Onyeka and Awoniyi respectively.
The changes almost yielded something positive on 50 minutes, as Usor went close after controlling a cross inside the box but hit a weak shot which was saved by the keeper.
In the 54th minute Simon also had a very good opportunity to level the score but hit a weak shot, off a headed pass inside the box, which the keepe saved.
Then it was the turn of Guinea-Bissau to go close on 57 minutes but Nwabali got down well to palm away a goal-bound shot.
Guinea-Bissau then went 2-0 up through Balde, who neatly beat Osayi-Samuel before slotting his effort beyond the reach of Nwabali.
In the 71st minute substitute Tolu Arokodare had a chance but dragged his strike across goal.
With 13 minutes left the Super Eagles had a chance with a free kick on the edge of the box but hit his effort against the wall before slotting the rebound off target.
In the 86th minute another substitute George Ilenikhena had a big opportunity after connecting with Bruno Onyemaechi’s clever lofted pass but could only strike his effort against the keeper.
Djalo then sealed the three points for Guinea-Bissau as he ran towards the Super Eagles box, went past his markers and slotted into the bottom corner.
MATCH STATISTICS
Guinea-Bissau 3-0 Nigeria
GOAL SCORERS: Guinea-Bissau
Franculino Dju (15 min)
Mama Balde (66 mins)
Alvaro Djalo (93 min)
LINE-UP: GUINEA-BISSAU
23. Fernando Embadje (GK)
15. Jefferson ENCADA
22. Opa Sangante
2. Victor Rofino
3. Adramane Cassama
7. Dalcio Gomes
11. Ronaldo Vieira
19. Renato Nhaga
17. Mama Balde
9. Beto
10. Franculino Dju
SUBSTITUTES
4. Alfa Semedo (Ronaldo Vieira, 71 min)
13. Tamble Monteiro (Franculino Dju, 79 min)
14. Mauro Rodrigues (Mama Balde, 71 min)
16. Mamadi Camará (Renato Nhaga, 61 min)
20. Alvaro Djalo (Beto, 79)
LINE-UP: NIGERIA
23 Stanley Nwabali
12 Bright Osayi-Samuel
6 Semi Ajayi
21 Calvin Bassey
3 Bruno Onyemaechi
4 Wilfred Ndidi
17 Alex Iwobi
7 Ademola Lookman
8 Frank Onyeka
22 Akor Adams
19 Taiwo Awoniyi
SUBSTITUTES
15 Moses Simon (Taiwo Awoniyi, 46 min)
24 Moses Usor (Frank Onyeka, 46 min)
9 George Ilenikhena (Akor Adams, 76 min)
10 Tolu Arokodare (Ademola Lookman, 68 min)
20 Raphael Onyedika (Wilfred Ndidi, 76 min)
HEAD COACH: Eric Chelle
By James Agberebi
21 Comments
This team is a shell of its coach.
The pitch looked horrible, yes.
But if you put the true elite teams of African football like Morocco, Senegal and The Ivory Coast in this same situation, they will get something out of this match.
Our players are not that good and the much ballyhooed coach isn’t that great either.
We need to accept that.
Guinea-Bissau Thrash Super Eagles 3-0 To Maintain Top Spot.
….and that was how we FAILED to qualify for AFCON 2027.
As our wise elders say, “When you celebrate mediocrity, you get more of it”
Enough said already……!!!
I am just speechless
Waoh 3-0
Everything have been said by fellow forumites
Simply ridiculous
What did yuh stone head pipos expekt? Wen eet ees basket case like Iwobi dat yuh mumu’s wii die for and insist dat must be in team an started games, how wii yuh not lost to useless team like GB? Ehn? ask yursel dat!
Yuh pipo are lucky dat ees onli 3 -0 , eet shud haf be 5 -0. Useless team, carrying baskets like Iwobi an eunu expekt to won game? Abeg move!
Bros, dis ees nt addressed to yuh personally o. Just speaking generally about Nigeria and the Super Chickens – chickens like Iwobi an co mtcheeew!
And all of sudden the coach is not good because we lost 3-0.
And people like Dr Drey can’t be trusted because he is always happy when when we get a bad results but hide when we have good results. All because he wants his mentor to brought back.
Now, Chelle needs to know he has to do something drastic here.
It’s clear now that without oshimen we are zero.
None of these strikers can get anything done. Awoniyi is not a player that can be trusted.
During qualifiers in Africa we need players who will be rough not the likes of ademola lookman. Lookman has not done anything brilliant for eagles in any away match in Africa.
It’s sad. But that’s the way African football is. Whoever approved that pitch does not like Africa ata all. But that’s not an excuse.
These players just failed to respond to the situation on ground.
We will still qualify as the only team in this group.
Guinea Bissau will fall in Nigeria.
Madagascar will be beaten in a good pitch in Morocco.
Tanzania will be beaten how and away.
Guinea Bissau will lose points against Madagascar.
In all these I hope oshimen is fit all through. This team is zero without oshimen.
What good result did you get….? The win you scraped from Madagascar that got everyone thanking the Most High for at least getting 3 points……? You must be a tool for mentioning my name.
Continue celebrating “good results” while failing the entire assignment.
No, Chelle does not need to do anything drastic, he should wait till he makes it 4 failures out of 4 assignments.
Its just getting clear to you now that without Osimhen we are zero……???? when Ive been shouting my lungs hoarse for as long as y’all can remember that this touareg is shit without Osimhen……..dude can barely win any games without Osimhen……but because he won his prized 5th grade friendly trophy for the 2nd time in london, you and your likes made him an over night messaih.
Now you open your filthy mouth to talk trash with my name……you better be careful young man.
I dont f-ing give a damn if you dont trust me……I dont need the shitty trust of celebrants of mediocrity like you……..But I will never stop telling the truth as long as I still breathe……Ive always told anyone who cares to listen, what I think about this Touareg, even when the SE win……..Im not a sycophantic idiot like you who has no balls of his own and switches opinions as often as a serpent sheds skin…….so I will keep giving my opinions wether he wins or loses……..and a known fact is that HE IS DANG BELOW AVERAGE as a coach………and that’s a fact. He’s just good enough to be a scout and a team manager………that’s a FACT.
Bunch of vipers……they have started again……..Guinea Bissau will fall in Nigeria……Madagascar will be beaten in a good pitch in Morocco…….Tanzania will be beaten home and away…….Guinea-Bissau will lose points against Madagascar……..yen yen yen yen yen. Imbecile. I thought the last world cup qualification would have taught dullards like you lessons…….but i see you are still as stupid as you have always been and would rather wallow in your foolery………So guess what……I’ll leave you in your foolery for now till when next you fail to keep my name out of your f-ing mouth.
It is my prayer that Osimhen will not be available for any of our matches, so that folks like you who claimed we now have alternatives after the fluke Unity Cup wins will be finally put where y’all belong.
Dr Drey? I’ve been asking you since 2021 if you have an X account just so I can follow you there. I stand with you EVERY TIME. I only come here to read your comments. CSN still hasn’t improved the comment section.
I never liked Chelle, even from the afcon. The set up is just too terrible to see. Who plays two stiff 9s and Lookman behind them? Is this PES? Against Madagascar he brought out George and Adams for You and Awoniyi. How can I rate this kind of coach? In 2026?
This guy is so terrible. These past two matches gave me peseiro vibes.
Gernot Rohr may not be all that tactically but he comes up with a good, fluid set up 95% of the time. This is just terrible. Osimhen has saved him for too long.
How do you expect Lookman to perform in that position? What was Onyeka’s role? Bruno was getting cooked every time yet played 90.
The pitch is horrible and I don’t honestly know how CAF passed it for international matches. Having said that, Eric Chelle should stop this nonsense diamond system that constantly exposes our midfield. Guinea Bissau controlled the midfield in the first half until Chelle changed the system in the second half.
Ndidi should become a senior citizen in the team and allow Onyedika to take his place. He is younger and can cover spaces quicker than Ndidi who has slowed down massively.
Chelle should stick to 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation which our players are more accustomed to in their vaious clubs. Most of these professional clubs play with 2 number 8s, one on the right and one on the left. This will allow Lookman to be the true number 10. They shifted to that in the second half and we were better and created chances.
100 caps Iwobi with 2 WC missed
100 caps Simon the same as above
Nvidia is now captain, a recipe for starting every match with mediocre performance. The midfielders only know how to play for Osimhen.
Adams the worst player on the day with Awoniyi. User they have started telling you to pass now even if you can go ahead. They will destroy your future if you listen to these 100 caps. The SE is now their birthright. Imagine Iwobi starting every game for Nigeria.
Okocha with less than 100 caps won AFCON and 3 WC. Only Yobo, Musa and Enyeama earned 100 caps meritorious with AFCON Gold. The others are below average. or at best average.
What do you expect from a team captained by one dimensional IWOBI, flanked by rigid Onyeka, and inconsistent Onyedika in the midfield.
Osayi has been a disaster from the last AFCON, Bruno had been a waiting disaster with tracking back..
Lookman is not in form, Adams is deteriorating…
Until Chelle realizes that only Nwabali, Ajayi, Bassey, Osimhen, and an inform Lookman/Adams are worthy of starting 11.
It’s not too late to show more love to the three best midfield formation of Nnadi, Samdon and Yusuf,
CHELLE, its to fully believe in our trigosta and integrate them into the team now.
Mr man, did you watch that game, how can you say that iwobi was the captain
Even if the pitch is good, these set of layers doesn’t looks convincing. That mildfield se needs overhaul.
I have said it Chelle those iwobi Ndidi and onyeka you continue to stick too will always create problem for you.
The problem is far from getting over.
Since the Chelle start complaining of not having enough training, I knew they will blow up something.
The name Super Eagles has been irrelevant for about a decade now.
This team is not Super. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
They are not eagles. They don’t fly.
They’re. Character is closer to poultry. Chickens to be precise. And since the national color is green, the name GREEN CHICKENS seems more appropriate for thus wobbling and fumbling bunch.
The Green Chickens now have to win the rest of their games, and score enough to ensure a better goal difference that GB. A tall order indeed, for these spineless Chickens.
Wahala unlimited.
Forgive my grammatical errors. I’m upset.
It’s a sad day indeed for Nigerian football.
Mediocre players, incompetent admin, unpaid bonuses, unpaid salaries, poor facilities. Were is the light at the end of this dark, horrible tunnel?
A very tall order indeed @Pompei.
NO hope, if you ask me, Nigerian Super Eagles are out of the 2027 Afcon in East Africa. There is only one spot left in group L as Tanzania qualifies automatically as co-host of Afcon 2027.
That one remaining spot will be taken by Guinea-Bissau, who comprehensively beat SE 3-0 today to go 3 points clear with a +5 goal difference, with Nigeria on only 3 points with -2 goal difference.
Nigeria has no midfield and I don’t know why Eric Chelle is still sticking with aging and unfit Ndidi and Iwobi in SE midfield. The younger fitter midfielders, who beat Jamaica 3-0 in the 2026 Unity Cup- likes of Tochukwu Nnadi, Alhasan Yusuf and Tijani should form the fulcrum of SE midfield and retire the rest.
Also we need a better left back than Bruno Onyemachi, and then bring back young and fitter Ben Fredericks and get rid of aging and slow Semi Ajayi in that Centre back.
Time to retire all the aging and unfit players, including Moses Simon, Wilfred Ndidi, Semi Ajayi, Taiwo Awoniyi, Alex Iwobi etal and bring in younger, fitter and pacier players across SE line-up
Never knew a day would come when the word “trash” would be used to describe a SE loss to an African team. Can’t remember the decade SE lost to an African team by more than a single-goal margin.
I doubt this team will qualify for the AFCON, cos GB is doing exactly what SA was doing during the WC qualifiers: start strong and let Nigeria keep playing catch-up until the last match day.
Can they beat the GB team 4 – 0 to level things up? The Godswill Akpabio Stadium is a hoodoo ground, and they struggle to win or draw there these days.
I must still be sleeping.
Oh ho! see now pipo wit 2 face and 2 mouth come dey talk from dem 2 mouth and 2 face – before wen many great men here was always shouting dat dey shud remoof Iwobi and his likes fron the Supere Chickens, nobody agrees, instead mani of yuh were yabbing dem – I remembered great mens like General Field Marshal Bob, who was always educating pipos here dat Iwobi is a weak link in de team buh did yuh pipo listened?? Now Iwobi standard haf became de team standard and efrybodi in de team ees now a basket – just look, Iwobi, Indidi, Osayi abi watin, Onyekam Onyedika just listened to this names and told me eef dis is the kain playere who shuld be representeding the Super Eagles? No, Never! this players are chickens and dey are not supere at al, imagine de days of Kanu, Okocha, Amokachi, Ikpeba, Babangida, Odemwingie, taiwo, Martins, Yobo,, West etc etc, dose were de name dat was representing the Eagles nowaday we has the like of Iwobi running arandd, hiding and afraid of tackle, can’t drivvle, can’t shoot, have never score goal before in hin live, and some of yuh “Nigerias” wii stii be calling hin and inviting hin every time de Eagle assemble an if a wise men told yuh otherwise unu go dey vex dey yab..well, ees good for unu, i am fery glad dat yuh pipo are now got wat yuh deserf! In fact yuh pipo are lucky becos Gb shud have spelled NIGERIA with goal, eet shud have bee like 7 -0, they were so much better than wunu useless Iwobi and Indeed and the trest of the wasteman dem – de onli gud playere in this Eagle team ees Osinhem, Lukman, Simon Peter, Bassey Okon in de bak, de goalie, wetin be hin name sef? Wanbali, den de like of Ajayi in the bak an dis ting – Adam, afta dat ther ees no team dere at al!
Make all of una gerrout!
Iwobi, Iwobi, Iwobi nonsense!
Many Nigerias are very big fulls!
Robbish!
They don’t train the coach has been negatively influenced by Nigerian settings. The players can not shoot or do anything reasonable, terrible fullbacks who are dribbled by amateurs, clownish Aba made goalkeeper who can not dive to parry shot. Next we will hear Okoye is better when that one is even worse when it comes to dealing with long shots. The team is just useless like their negatively influenced coach. FIFA ranking go tank!!!
When the match started and I saw the pitch I knew it will take the grace of God to escape defeat. This is the type of pitch that Aina got injured in South Africa expectedly the other players will be mindful of playing hard to avoid injury, am not even surprised Aina was not in the starting line up he must have told the coach no way am I playing on this bumpy field.
Then when I saw players like Lookman , Iwobi I knew there will be problems, looking sometimes need focus for him to play well and on this kind of field and with the ways the home team was playing and running up and down I knew the outcome won’t favor us.
I expect the coach to have blended some home grown players that can do battle to finish , players that are used to this kind of pitch to be in the midfield and not Ndidi.
Again the NFF need to be active in defending their players from bad pitch by complaining to CAF.
We no longer have players who truly match the name Super Eagles. These boys are simply not good enough, and at this point, can anybody confidently say this team will win all four of their remaining matches and qualify for AFCON?
We struggle to move the ball forward with any fluidity. The passing is poor, the crosses are poor, and the midfield lacks creativity. We don’t have enough players who can take control of a game, create chances, and make intelligent decisions under pressure.
It is time to overhaul this team and bring in younger, more aggressive, energetic, and intelligent players who are hungry enough to give Nigeria the results we desperately need.
African football has changed. Other teams have improved and are no longer intimidated by Nigeria. If we don’t make serious changes, we could easily face the same disappointment against Tanzania.
Something has to change.
As much as I blamed the bad pitch and still believe we will qualify, I want us to know that GB also have players in Europe, they gat players in Montpellier, Everton, Brest, Florentina and the like.
Chelle need to do away with frank onyeka and awoniyi henceforth seriously, blend those our young midfielders that played the unity cup with ndidi and iwobi.