The Super Eagles were defeated 4-2 on penalties by Morocco in the semi-final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Rabat on Wednesday.
The game kicked off with a weak pass from Semi Ajayi in the second minute that almost gifted Morocco their opening goal, but his timely recovery blocked the ball from causing any havoc.
In the 8th minute, Brahim Diaz’s sharp left-foot shot whistled past the Super Eagles’ goalpost. Nigeria had their first shot on target in the 13th minute as Ademola Lookman’s shot was parried away by Morocco goalkeeper Yassine Bounou.
Morocco had two decent opportunities in the space of two minutes that were not converted by Ayoub El Kaabi and Brahim Diaz. On the other hand, the Super Eagles were limited to few goal-scoring chances, as the likes of Victor Osimhen and Akor Adams were well checkmated by the Morocco defenders.
Read Also:AFCON 2025: Super Eagles Vs Morocco Will Be Tough Battle –Ex-International
Again in the 36th minute, Hakimi’s free kick failed to cause any serious threat to Super Eagles goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali. However, Ismael Saibari almost gave the host the lead in the 39th minute, as he twisted and turned two Nigerian defenders before firing a shot that was parried away by the Chippa United goalkeeper.
The first half ended with both teams failing to break the deadlock in a tight encounter.
The Super Eagles began the second half on a positive note as a well-drifted shot from Onyedika went way wide of the goalpost. However, in the 51st minute, Nwabali was called to action as he parried away a curled shot from Abdessamad Ezzalzouli.
Nigeria had another rare opportunity in Morocco’s 18-yard box in the 65th minute after Alex Iwobi’s through pass to Osimhen was not properly controlled by him.
In the 74th minute, Bruno Onyemaechi was at the right place to head away a dangerous cross from a Moroccan winger for a corner kick. The result of the corner kick was cleared away by the Super Eagles defender.
An ambitious shot from Abdessamad Ezzalzouli in the 81st minute was again parried away by Nwabali to keep the scoreline goalless.
After 90 minutes the game remained goalless.
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The start of the extra time saw the Moroccan in search of the opening goal as Oussama Targhaline’s shot in the 94th minute whistled past the Nigerian goalpost.
In the 103rd minute, Osimhen chested a floated cross from Onyemaechi in Morocco’s 18-yard box, but a slight slip saw him fail to connect properly with the game, giving the host a bit of a sigh of relief.
The second half of the extra time had both teams scrambling for the few goal-scoring chances that came their way.
A powerful strike from Nayef Aguerd in the 119th minute was calmly saved by Nwabali to keep the scoreline still goalless.
All efforts from both sides to score the winning goal proved abortive after 120 minutes, sending the game into penalty.
The duo of Samuel Chukwueze and Onyemaechi failed to convert their penalties to allow Morocco to advance on 4-2 after penalty shootout.
MATCH STATISTICS
Nigeria 0-0 Morocco
GOAL SCORERS: NIGERIA
Nil
GOAL SCORER: MOROCCO
Nill
LINE-UP: NIGERIA
Stanley Nwabali
Bright Osayi-Samuel
Semi Ajayi
Calvin Bassey
Bruno Onyemaechi
Raphael Onyedika
Frank Onyeka
Alex Iwobi
Ademola Lookman
Akor Adams
Victor Osimhen
SUBSTITUTES
Moses Simon
(Onyedika, 83 min)
Fisayo Dele-Bashiru
(Akor Adams 97 mins)
Paul Onuachu
(Victor Osimhen 117 min)
Samuel Chukwueze
(Frank Onyeka 120 min)
HEAD COACH: Eric Chelle
LINE-UP: MOROCCO
Yassine Bounou
Achraf Hakimi
Noussair Mazraoui
Nayef Aguerd
Brahim Díaz
Ismael Saibari
Abdessamad Ezzalzouli
Ayoub El Kaabi
Bilal El Khannous
Neil El Aynaoui
Adam Masina
SUBSTITUTES
Igmane Hamza
(Ayoub El Kaabi, 84 min)
Oussama Targhaline
(Bilal El Khannous, 84 min)
Youssef En-Nesyri
(Abdessamad Ezzalzouli 103 min)
Ilias Chakkour
(Brahim Díaz 107 min)
Eliesse Ben Seghir
(Ismael Saibari 118 min)
HEAD COACH: Walid Regragui
By James Agberebi in Fes, Morocco
10 Comments
Fans pls lets stage a protest against inviting chukweze to our national team again. He is a waste of space.. He does look like some one who will grow even in years to come. Osihmen is his mate
But imagine the game between them in terms contributing something to SE. Look at the way he took that penalty . So Casual and unprofessional. He is a bad luck to SE. Meanwhile it seems SE did not practice penalties. Thats so bad.
Please stop that rubbish plan of yours.Chukwueze has served this country more than you would ever dream of. He was not the reason we lost. His penalty kick was not too bad. Its just that the goalkeeper guessed correctly the side the ball would go. Even with his nonchalant attitude if the goalkeeper had guessed wrongly he would have scored.
We have no point in going to the World Cup if we can not be mentally strong and compact.
This is Super Eagles!
Our players should be more focused on their careers, which are in football.
Our boys are more focused on doing hairstyles than improving in their careers.
I thought by now, after the Dr Congo, our boys would have improved at the penalties, but instead, look at their hairstyles.
You see Bobo Nwabali, Ndidi, to name a few, you can tell the level of their seriousness and commitment in them.
Please don’t blame the referee because we all know that it’s going to be like that. What do we expect kę? We were playing against the host nation. CAF intentionally planted the Ghanaian referee in this match
When was the last time you saw Messi and Ronaldo doing these kinds of hairstyles? These two are fully focused, mentally strong, and ready to come out victorious in any situation in football.
Coach Eric Chelle have tried his best, but our boys are letting him down once again!
It is a big shame that the current Super Eagles can not produce the world’s best free-kick takers in their national team.
Please stop that rubbish plan of yours.Chukwueze has served this country more than you would ever dream of. He was not the reason we lost. His penalty kick was not too bad. Its just that the goalkeeper guessed correctly the side the ball would go. Even with his nonchalant attitude if the goalkeeper had guessed wrongly he would have scored.
There is no need staging a protest. The coach should take responsibilities for fielding an unserious player at a crucial moment.
Nwabali, Bassey, Ajayi, Bruno, Onyeka, Lookman and Osimhen have shown why they are very reliable in the team.
By the way, Chelle tried for this team. The nff just need to stop interfering in players invitation.
We have no point in going to the World Cup if we can not be mentally strong and compact.
This is Super Eagles!
Our players should be more focused on their careers, which are in football.
Our boys are more focused on doing hairstyles than improving in their careers. The time they have spent doing those hairstyles, they use that to do something meaningful in their careers.
I thought by now, after the Dr Congo, our boys would have improved at the penalties, but instead, look at their hairstyles.
You see Bobo Nwabali, Ndidi, to name a few, you can tell the level of their seriousness and commitment in them.
Please don’t blame the referee because we all know that it’s going to be like that. What do we expect kę? We were playing against the host nation. CAF intentionally planted the Ghanaian referee in this match for a reason!
The match has been planned before today! If you know you know!
Our boys tried, and they can not do beyond their limits.
But they have to improve and build themselves new spirits of winning in any situation.
That is what separates men from boys.
We planned as a team that if we did not score in 120 minutes, the penalties would follow, but did they have those who would do that?
When was the last time you saw Messi and Ronaldo doing these kinds of hairstyles? These two are fully focused, mentally strong, and ready to come out victorious in any situation in football.
Coach Eric Chelle have tried his best, but our boys are letting him down once again!
It is a big shame that the current Super Eagles can not produce the world’s best free-kick takers in their national team.
In conclusion, our players should do more practice on how to take free kicks and penalties, and they need to be more focused and continue improving. I don’t blame our boys but from now on, they need to add more to their game if they have to be among the best in Africa and in the World. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
The only area in fault Chelle was playing defensively, why dished the style that took us this far? And I literally expected a change in the second half but nothing.
The Ghanaian referee, Daniel Laryea was a kill-joy today, completely poor in his handling of the match. He was obviously the 12th player for Morocco tonight
Akor played poorly today. First touch always bad and misplaced passes oftentimes.
Same with Ademola Lookman, usually kills the attacking move by attempting too many dribbles.
Osimhen didn’t have much service today, not a single cross into dangerous area for him, no through pass.
The midfield missed captain Ndidi, no good composure.
*The defense was fantastic. Bassey was a Trojan.*
Semi Ajayi, Bruno, and Osayi Samuel did a yeoman job.
Nwabali performed creditably well and made some nice routine saves to keep Nigeria in the game.
*The coach was awful, no tactical imput, substitution was poor and wrong.*
*How on earth can you remove your best penalty taker (Osimhen) when you know that the match is destined for penalty shootouts?*
Chukwueze and Bruno’s penalty were so poor
The boys did their best though, crashed out with their head held high but just not their day at a crucial moment again.
*Good luck to them in AFCON 2027*
In my opinion, I felt the game needed Chukwueze from the start of the 2nd half. We were not penetrating their defence and it needed someone who could take on players 1-on-1 and worry their defence. He produced 2 assists last time he played. They brought him in only to take penalty, there was no warm up, no conditioning his mindset to the hostile crowd. He caved during the penalties.
I won’t blame anyone, but you can see the difference between Falcons and Eagles. Falcons came back for half-time and were like fk it, we die here today. Super Eagles succumbed to Crowd… Even the ref was intimidated by the crowd
Super Eagles really impressed me all throughout this tournament however there are certain things I noticed in our match against Morocco.
Jerseys do not play football but I have discovered that the white Jersey which Super Eagles wore yesterday portends failure. Have you notice that anytime we use that Jersey we hardly win our games. Why changing the winning Jersey for the doomed one? Afterall Morocco is wearing Red.
Secondly, let stop crying over spilled milk it is high time Nigeria built a standard stadium, if we have had a beautiful stadium like Moroccan we would have miss the opportunity of playing in the next World cup. The Moroccan stadia really showcase how beautiful our Super Eagles are.
Bravo Super Eagles!!!