Johannes Bonfrere, a former Nigeria coach, has described the Super Eagles’ 3-0 defeat to Djurtus [the Wild Dogs] of Guinea-Bissau in Tuesday’s 2027 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier in Bissau as absolutely ‘unbelievable’, Completesports.com reports.
The 80-year-old Bonfrère, who was in charge when Nigeria’s U-23s won the men’s football gold medal at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, also fumed with rage while speaking with Completesports.com on Wednesday afternoon from his country home in the Netherlands, describing Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle’s ‘bad pitch’ and ‘bad weather’ excuses as ‘stupid’.
The 2000 AFCON silver medal-winning coach with the Super Eagles reckons that the result is a ‘shame’ for Nigerian football and that Nigeria is not only sinking football-wise but also economically.
‘It’s Unbelievable, Shameful, Disappointing’ – Bonfrere Decries Super Eagles’ Loss
“It’s absolutely unbelievable that Guinea-Bissau could defeat the Super Eagles 3-0,” Bonfrere screamed when informed that the three-time AFCON winners went down 3-0 in the 2027 AFCON qualifier at the 20,000-capacity Estádio 24 de Setembro in Guinea-Bissau.
Also Read: 2027 AFCONQ: We Have Too Many Overhyped Players In Super Eagles — Dimeji Lawal
“Nigeria losing 3-0 to Guinea-Bissau? That’s ‘shameful’, very ‘disappointing’. It shows how low Nigerian football has fallen.”
Bonfrere refused to accept Super Eagles coach Eric Sekou Chelle’s excuses for Nigeria’s ’embarrassing’ 3-0 defeat to Guinea-Bissau.
Coach Chelle had given the ‘bad pitch’ of the Estadio Nacional de Setembro Bissau and ‘bad weather’ as reasons the Super Eagles played poorly in the game, leading to the ‘disgraceful’ defeat.
“That’s a stupid excuse. We once played against Eritrea in Asmara on April 9, 2000, and got a draw despite the bad pitch and weather.
“You trained on the pitch before the game. When the pitch is bad, when the weather is bad, you change tactics. That’s the work of the coach.”
Bonfrere Questions NFF’s Decision On Chelle’s Job
Bonfrere, who assisted Clemens Westerhof during Nigeria’s 1994 AFCON triumph in Tunisia as well as the country’s 1994 FIFA World Cup debut in the United States of America, questioned the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) decision to retain Eric Chelle as Super Eagles coach despite his failure to lead the team to the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
Also Read: AFCON 2027Q: 5 Major Observations From Super Eagles’ Defeat To Guinea-Bissau
“It’s ridiculous, he’s still there. Nigeria did not go to the World Cup despite having a chance as the third-best team to go through the play-offs,” he said.
“Yes, he did not start the qualifiers, but when he came, Nigeria had a chance through the play-offs. But he didn’t. It’s unbelievable the federation (NFF) went for a coach from Mali to lead the Super Eagles.”
4 Comments
If the Guinea Bissau’s goalie had the same lax, lackadaisical attitude as Nwabali, we would have pulled a draw. I would have said we would have won, but we had no bite upfront that day. So who would have scored???
We saw what Okoye did in the Portugal friendly pre-WC. He dove for every ball and kept the goalpost like his life depended on it.
By contrast, Nwabali plays like he’s doing us a favor. Like he’s paid his dues, like he’s retiring legend like Rufai playing a testimonial match, and so can afford to let in goals at will.
Could Okoye, or even, Okonkwo had let in 4 goals in 2 days against teams like Madagascar and GB?
Any wonder no European club comes from him? Not even the big clubs in SA where he plays. We might be using the poorest goalkeeper from our pool cos he bamboozled us with a bravado attitude to mask his technical shortcomings.
Nwabali no longer cares if we won or lost and it’s time to drop him to the bench. Do we even have goalkeeper coach, Mr Chelle? A good one?
A bad goalkeeper will make the whole team look bad, no matter the quality of the midfielders and strikers. A good team starts with wizard goalkeeper.
Besides, it’s curious that a day before the match, Chelle was complaining about a lack of time to train, as if Guinea Bissau were going to have an extra day or 2.
The he complained about the pitch. Bonfrere’s response on this is instructive:
““You trained on the pitch before the game. When the pitch is bad, when the weather is bad, you change tactics. That’s the work of the coach.”
Which begs the question: Did Chelle change tactics, considering the state of the pitch and the hot weather?
Often we play like we didn’t study the opponent and their possible tactical outlay, and just 100 reply on our own “quality” to outshine the opponent. I noticed this too in the WC playoff.
Fingers crossed until the Russia friendly next Tuesday and the November double header against Tanzania.
Okoye and Nwabali are the same. Okonkwo is the person with perfect record with SE and the discipline required to man that post for better for worse. For now i am going on break from sports in General because people don’t seem to see where corrections are needed but recycling same old mistakes due to mass corruption.
Kel, what is wrong with you?
Don’t you know Nwabali is a chief? You want a whole red cap chief to be diving on the pitch?
Haba, come on Kel. I expected you to be reasonable on this matter.
Nwabali is too big to be diving up and dan.
Digital, no go on break ooo.
All of us need to be here and put heads together to move our football forward, because the dummies in the Glass House are apparently not doing anything.
They don’t even care about our football.
Just as we all joined hands in pursuing Gusau out of office with our relentless criticism, we need to keep the pressure on NFF so they will do the right thing.
If we leave it for this NFF, our football will continue to nosedive. Already, we are in danger of missing the next Afcon. After that, the next thing is to miss 2030 world cup.