Players and officials of the Super Eagles will depart Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire for Abuja on Monday (12 February) afternoon.
According to the team’s media officer, Babafemi Raji, the team will leave the Pullman Hotel to the airport at 1pm.
Then they will depart Abidjan for Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at 2.45pm
The Eagles lost 2-1 to hosts Côte d’Ivoire in Sunday’s final in Abidjan.
William Troost-Ekong had given the Eagles a first half lead but goals from Franck Kessie and Sebastien Haller earned the Ivorians the win.
Also Read: AFCON 2023: Stop The Attacks On Iwobi. — Musa Pleads With Nigerian Fans
It was a remarkable end to the tournament for Côte d’Ivoire who were on the verge of elimination after losing two of their three Group A games.
Luckily for, them they qualified for the knockout round after finishing as one of the third best placed teams.
After finishing second behind Equatorial Guinea, Jose Peseiro’s men defeated the likes of Cameroon, Angola and South Africa to reach the final.
Troost-Ekong was named Player of the Tournament while South Africa goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and Equatorial Guinea’s Emilio Nsue won the Best Goalkeeper and Top scorer awards respectively.
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COMMENTS
Congratulations the the Super Eagles, you did us all proud.
Although the Cup did not home, your pride did. Now the Super Eagles have taken their rightful place as a top three African football nation not to be taken for granted.
As a result of yesterday’s heroic second place finish, the Super Eagles now equals Egypt as the joint most medals accumulators with 15 each and also equals Ghana as the most number of Silver medals attained with 5 each.
We had a fabulous run into the final but against Ivory Coast in the final, a lot of our strategies did work.
We earned a living sitting back to contain and restrain oppositions but Ivory Coast found several ways to make dangerous incursions through our defensive apparatus with startling accuracy.
Those fans who spent sleepless nights clamouring for Iheanacho throughout the tournament would have watched in horror as he failed to track back to help a battered and bruised Aina en route to Ivory Coast’s kiss of death second goal – a telling confirmation of Iheanacho’s limited defensive acumen in Peseiro’s negative football philosophy.
Containment failed to work for the Super Eagles as so many beautiful crosses were whipped into the Super Eagles box 18 and a number of promising long range shots were even aimed at Nwabili to boot.
This was the same containment strategy we used against Ivory Coast in the group stages and this time they were ready – lightning will not strike them twice.
Something funny to me is that out right wingback position has been directly or indirectly implicated in the most lethal defeat we have suffered in recent times against Tunisia in the last Afcon, Ghana in Abuja’s world cup qualifiers and now Ivory Coast in the Afcon final – is that department jinxed or does Aina (present in all three ill-fated encounters) have to beef up his tackles in 1v1 duels?
Crosses needed to be curtailed against Ivory Coast but we failed to do that leading to our ambitions of lifting the trophy being effectively curtailed.
But the Super Eagles can still be very proud of their run. They did their best but it just wasn’t good enough against Ivory Coast on the day.
We now shift our attention to world cup qualifiers. I think Peseiro should stay but perhaps try something else other than negative or economical football as he puts it. Negative football stifles ambition and adventure.
The Super Eagles neither looked adventurous nor ambitious yesterday. They just wanted to smash with Ekong’s goal and then grab the victory but they got smashed with great Ivory Coast wing play twice.
In my view, the Super Eagles still need to prove they can play and expansive, open, vibrant and aggressively offensive brand of football whilst shoring things up at the back.
Peseiro tried this template in the first match against Guinea Bissau but was perplexed that it only yielded 1 goal in favour and 1 goal deficit, so he went fully defensive.
How far could Nigeria have gone with an offensive philosophy? Who knows?
Anyways, well done Peseiro, well done Super Eagles and well done all fans who stuck with the team.
As for me, the Super Eagles are great again, reaching a major final and going on the podium!
I am super happy!
This is why you always get plaudits from some of us here.
A clean,honest and well put out assessment of our AFCON performance under Peseiro,its a shame he had to go down that route due to a disjointed preparation(lack of proper time to further experiment and unnecessary dramatic distractions from NFF).
Anyway his lack of proactivity was what led to the SE losing the final and that blame squarely falls to his analysis crew who should’ve seen the signs during the first half and then react accordingly was it an ineffective chukwueze,or a tiring osihmen or even Iwobi who struggles to track runners from midfield etc. The point is he could’ve acted a lot sooner to revert back to the 4-3-3 with personell changes in timely fashion but failed to do so and the result was a gut wrenching heartbreak for Nigerians worldwide.
Anyways the deed is done no need to cry over spilled milk but you get the sense this outcome would’ve been different so now like you I’m also curious to know the way forward. I believe he should be allowed to learn from this outcome and build cos part of the road to success involves a many failures. He should focus on the tasks ahead.
As for the NFF its high time they start making serious moves to revamp and rejig our football especially on the local front and stop being dramatical about trivial things. So the coaches can have a wide pool of talent to build his teams from.
Thanks once again sir its always a pleasure to read your educative comments here.
Thanks Codex for your in depth and rich contents as well.
It continues to worry me that our defenders don’t always seem comfortable with an arrangement of 4. They come alive with 5 but even after that they falter like yesterday.
They were going to pack the bus and Ivory said they will smash our bus with stones of crosses which they did, effectively.
It was painful – as a Nigerian – to see successful cross after cross delivered into our box 18!
But, we have more medals than any other African country across Gold, Silver and Bronze. Now that puts a huge smile on my face.
One love Codex!
** Re-written from above with more accuracy in stats and more content **
Congratulations the the Super Eagles, you did the nation proud despite playing second fiddle to Ivory Coast in Afcon final.
Although the Cup did not home, their pride did. Now the Super Eagles have taken their rightful place as a top three African football nation not to be taken for granted.
As a result of yesterday’s heroic second place finish, the Super Eagles are the most medals-decorated team in the tournament’s history with 16 (3 Golds, 5 Silvers and Bronze medals) followed by Egypt with 13 medals. Also, Nigeria equals Ghana as the most number of Silver medals attained with 5 each.
We had a fabulous run into the final but against Ivory Coast in the final, a lot of our strategies did work.
We earned a living sitting back to contain and restrain oppositions but Ivory Coast found several ways to make dangerous incursions through our defensive apparatus with startling accuracy.
Those fans who spent sleepless nights clamouring for Iheanacho throughout the tournament would have watched in horror as he failed to track back to help a battered and bruised Aina en route to Ivory Coast’s kiss of death second goal – a telling confirmation of Iheanacho’s limited defensive acumen in Peseiro’s negative football philosophy.
Containment failed to work for the Super Eagles as so many beautiful crosses were whipped into the Super Eagles box 18 and a number of promising long range shots were even aimed at Nwabili to boot.
This was the same containment strategy we used against Ivory Coast in the group stages and this time they were ready – lightning would not strike them twice.
Something funny to me is that our right wingback position has been directly or indirectly implicated in the most lethal defeat we have suffered in recent times against Tunisia in the last Afcon, Ghana in Abuja’s world cup qualifier and now Ivory Coast in the Afcon final
Is that right fullback department jinxed or does Aina (present in all three ill-fated encounters) have to beef up his tackles in 1v1 duels?
Crosses needed to be curtailed against Ivory Coast but we failed to do that leading to our ambitions of lifting the trophy being effectively curtailed.
But the Super Eagles can still be very proud of their run. They did their best but it just wasn’t good enough against Ivory Coast on the day.
We now shift our attention to world cup qualifiers. I think Peseiro should stay but perhaps try something else other than negative or economical football as he puts it. Negative football stifles ambition and adventure.
The Super Eagles neither looked adventurous nor ambitious yesterday. They just wanted to smash with Ekong’s goal and then grab the victory but they got smashed with great Ivory Coast wing play twice with the hosts grabbing their well deserved trophy.
In my view, the Super Eagles still need to prove they can play an expansive, open, vibrant and aggressively offensive brand of football whilst shoring things up at the back.
Despite Ekong winning the Player of the Tournament award, our defence still needs defenders who are less error proned.
Peseiro tried an all-out offensive template in the first match against Guinea Bissau but was perplexed that it only yielded 1 goal in favour and 1 goal deficit, so he went fully defensive. This park-the-bus attitude saw us all the way to the final before Ivory Coast removed our wheels.
How far could Nigeria have gone with an offensive philosophy? Who knows? I felt at the time that we should have retained the offensive philosophy with few tweaks here and there but, what do I know?
Are we saying a big footballing giant like Nigeria can not play effectively with 4 defenders? Rohr, Eguavoen and Peseiro were all deemed to have failed when Nigeria played an open brand of football with Peseiro and Rohr going with 5 at the back – Eguavoen was a slow learner.
Anyways, well done Peseiro, well done Super Eagles and well done all fans who stuck with the team.
As for me, the Super Eagles are great again, reaching a major final and going on the podium!
I am super happy!
You failed to add this written in block letters:
“As a result of yesterday’s heroic second place finish, the Super Eagles are the most medals-decorated team in the tournament’s history with 16 (3 Golds, 5 Silvers and 8 Bronze medals) IN ONLY 20 AFCON APPEARANCES (16 MEDALS OUT OF 20 AFCONS IS NOT A JOKE; I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO KNOW IF LOCAL COACHES WERE MORE IN THE DUGOUT IN THE 4 TIMES WE FAILED TO FINISH ON THE PODIUM BECAUSE FOR ME, FOREIGN COACHES ARE BETTER TO CONVINCE FOREIGN BORN PROS TO PLAY FOR US) followed by Egypt with 13 medals…..
SACK THE COACH IMMEDIATELY DON’T CALL MOST OF THE PLAYER’S AGAIN TO THE NATIONAL TEAM
GO TO OUR LOCAL LEAGUE SCOUT GOOD TALENTED PLAYERS
GIVE US EMMANUEL AMUNEKE AS HEAD COACH
SENEGAL WON THE AFCON WITH LOCAL COACH
IVORY COAST WON THIS AFCON WITH THEIR LOCAL COACH
2013 NIGERIA WON THE AFCON WITH BIG BOSS STEPHEN KESHI OUR OWN COACH
GIVE US LOCAL COACH NOW
We need stiff competition in all the departments of the ground. Some Home base players could do better. No. Automatic shirt for any Super Eagles player. Everyone one must fight for his shirt that is what football is all about like in clubside.
Yesterday… What we played was lie down and let Cote d’voire roll over us… Our outing was anti-football. We played very timid and without spine in a high stakes game… Let the host feel very comfortable without us offering any resistance. It was a very difficult game to watch. It was a coaching problem, we lacked any real intent… No one plays see defensive football to defend a goal for 90minutes. Osimhen was over-used….there is wear and tear in football and even when Osimhen was clearly limping… Peseiro left him inside. We went with other strikers but Peseiro couldn’t summon courage to bring in anybody in good time for Osimhen. Cape Verde played the most conspicuous football in this AFCON.
The lads really tried their best.
If you flash back to the previous games we played before AFCON you won’t be angry with this boys.
Our games against Saudi Arabia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe , Guinea konakri will easily tell you what will definitely happen in Ivory coast .
But the boys defide all odds and went as far as the final.
Kudos to them.
Also, the likes of NDIDI, BONIFACE, SODIQ were ruled out of the tournament due to injury yet the boys and the coach still use what they have to do us proud.
I gallantly salute them.
Having said this, I think the coach needs some areas to work on. NIGERIA’s attack is always okay including the wings.
The major concern lies in GK department, FULL BACKS, CBs, MIDFIELD.
I think players like DAGA in Eyimba, ELETU in AC MILAN, AKINSEMIRO in inter Milan, and this our U20 guy in Brentford should start receiving invite.
These lads are the future of our super eagles and may even make it to 2026 world.
NFF there’s no time to check time…. Get up and do what you guys were paid for….. 2025 AFCON in Morocco and 2026 wc in north America is at the corner.
Players like OLISEH, CHUKWUEMEKA, UGOCHUKWU, JONES in Liverpool are players we need in our almost dying midfield.
Go out and meet these players again, tell them the vision on ground and how you want the team to look like before the AFCON and world cup.
This shouldn’t be the work of PESEIRO, NFF leave that comfort zone and do what you were all hired to do. Not sitting there to eat money.
We need save hands to create competition for NWABALI until the brain of uzoho and okoye is factory reset to normal mode that God gave them.
Look inward, outward and everywhere, we’ve GK that have confidence just like NWABALI in our league, invite them and use them.
Finally, we lost the game to Ivory coast because the ivorian exploited on our weak full backs.
The 2 goals we conceded was as a results of our LB & RB not doing their work properly.
Our LB zaidu left kessie unmark
Drop Iwobi from the national team. Let us groom 50 percent home base and 50 percent foreign base to bring stiff competition in the team.
Well, he’ll soon quit so that you all can be happy. He has explained time and time again that he was playing in a new role. Let’s leave those guys abeg. They tried in a 2 man midfield, it’s not easy
We need stiff competition in all the departments of the ground.
And what is the new role exactly? And please don’t tell us to defend, because he didn’t defend one bit at this tournament. he was just ball watching, watching opponent breeze by. So what exactly was he asked to do that he did perfectly
@kenny
Your opinion is very important but I don’t think this is the right time.
Next month, march precisely we’re playing Morocco 2025 AFCON qualifies….
June, we’ll return back to WCQ.
Next year is AFCON.
2026 is WC.
No time for trial error.
Professionals are needed to gel properly with the team not unexposed home based players.
I mean this is good enough I personally didn’t think we’d make the quater final before the tournament. Peseiro’s tactical frailties and exhaustion from the system he deployed cost us the final.
1. Adingra’s continuous pressure on Aina was not contained he did it the whole 44 min and into the second half. That was just tactical insanity from Peseiro.
2. Starting chukwueze who lately, doesn’t even offer anything going forward and you expect him to help Aina?
3. We were very lucky to score first in a game we weren’t playing well and the coach didn’t think to shore things up at the start of the second half? In a final?
4. My suggestion would have been to remove Zaidu, move Aine left, and bring Awaziem to deal with the rascal Adingra lol but we lost to a better side both tactically and in terms of who wanted it more.
Alot of lessons to be learned from this if Peseiro is to continue.
I told some of my friends before the start of Cote D’Ivoire 2023 that Super Eagles has never won AFCON where Cameroon participate, but they called me unpatriotic Nigeria. I was saying this base on facts. In 1980, 1994, and 2013 that Super Eagles won AFCON Cameroon did not participated. I don’t if it is a coincidence or destiny, but all the same Super Eagles surpassed a lot of people’s expectation.
Well done Super Eagles!