Former Nigeria international Peter Ijeh has Urged Super Eagles players, to use the disappointment of not qualifying for the 2026 World Cup as motivation to win the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Super Eagles lost 4-3 to Democratic Republic of Congo after regulation and extra-time ended 1-1, in the World Cup qualifying playoffs in Morocco.
Eric Chelle’s side reached the Playoffs final after thrashing Gabon 4-1 in the semi-finals, while DR Congo edged out Cameroon 1-0.
The defeat to DR Congo means the Super Eagles have now failed to qualify for back-to-back World Cup tournaments.
Attention will now shift to the AFCON which will begin in December 21 in Morocco.
Now Ijeh has adviced the players to put the World Cup Miss behind them and focus on the AFCON.
“Missing next year’s World Cup should be a motivating factor for Super Eagles players to go and win the AFCON,” Ijeh said on Brila FM.
Also Read: Nigerian Football – What Next! — Odegbami
“The AFCON is another opportunity for the players to make amends because what has gone has gone there is nothing they can do about it.
“I believe the players have the mentality and mindset and must focus on what is ahead.”
The Super Eagles will face Tunisia, Uganda and Tanzania at the AFCON.
At the 2023 edition in Cote d’Ivoire, the Super Eagles lost 2-1 to the host and missed the chance to claim a fourth continental title.
By James Agberebi
8 Comments
Peter Ijeh can wish all he wants but I can’t see this current SE team winning the Afcon, especially if they play the way they did against DR Congo in their last outing- although I suspect fatigue (occasioned from the 2hrs victory against Gabon just 3 days prior) and tired legs contributed more to the performance.
There is huge problem building up in SE since the last few years of the Gernot Rohr era, and that’s the Midfield after Ogenyi Onazi and Mikel Obi left the team after the 2019 Afcon. It has been a struggle since then, both Defensive and most especially a Creative/Attacking midfielder. Rohr couldn’t solve this problem and that led to progressive decline towards his final days.
Paseiro could not get one either (AM/CM) – that can progress the ball from box to box, feeding the attackers with decent scoring chances and indeed scoring goals themselves- the likes of JJ Okocha, Mutiu Adepoju or earlier, Henry Nwosu. This is why recent SE coaches have resorted to long balls from defenders to attackers- particularly Osimhen, who is strong, pacy, combative and can feed from scraps to score goals. Iwobi did quite well in his younger years, but unlike his uncle (Okocha) he can’t dribble and shoot from range to score spectacular goals. He was better in his younger/prime years with good eye for picking out dangerous passes but he was never the real deal AM.
Chelle must seek a much younger, pacy and progressive AM, and quickly get a replacement for Moses Simon- whom age and injuries have made less effective in the left winger. The Moses Simon of those playoffs is not the very, quick, efficient Simon, whom with his name sake, Victor Moses sank Cameroon in Uyo in 2017 on their way to WC 2018 qualification.
I think any suggestion of changing the Coach so close to the Afcon finals should be buried. Whilst I agree about some of his shortcomings, no reasonable person can really fault Chelle for not qualifying Nigeria for the WC. This guy picked 14 out of available 18 points( 80%) in the matches he supervised. Had Paseiro (30%) and Finidi (17%) even garnered only 3 points each from the 6 available to them, we would have been home and dry with the ticket without recourse to the long, windy and dangerous playoffs.
At the end of the day a coach is only as good as the players available to them, otherwise Rohr will be doing the same magic he did with SE in his earlier years with the Benin team- instead of Chelle beating him by 4 goals to nil, and losing 3-0 to Burkina Faso a week ago!
Hahahahaha…..some people’s coping mechanism for failing to qualify for back to back world cups is to rejoice that Gernot Rohr’s 92 ranked Benin lost a friendly match to 62 ranked Burkina Faso…….LMAOoooo
Hello, Rohr is doing magic with Benin already. He’s qualified Benin with their 2nd Div, 3rd Div, homebased and clubless players for an AFCON they had no business qualifying for and was top of our WC group heading into the final day of World cup qualification. He was the only one to defeat your almighty super eagles in WCQ and practically contributed majorly to booting your asses out of a world cup you had every reason to qualify for but failed to qualify for.
And Helloooo, Mr “Patriotic Nigerian”, why are you predicting doom for the national team…?? What has happened to you…….LMAOOoo
What happened to your patriotism…..?? Do you too now have a dark cloud hanging over your destiny and now want to spread your negativity to others as you were accusing me when I was pointing out the deficiencies of this team….? LMAOooooo
So the scales have fallen off your eyes ehn…..?? Sense has finally caught up with you…? Back to back world cup failures have hot-wired your brain to start functioning normally……..LMAOoooo. You can now make informed inferences from a combination of trends and current data and information……..LMAOooo.
But it seems the hot-wiring of your brains failed to jumpstart your memory.
Your desperation to pin your current failures on a coach y’all ganged up, lied against and fired without reason has prevented your memory from revival……LMAOooo
Every end of sentence – LMAOoooo. Ewobi we khin ah?
Fact check:
Onazi ceased to be an integral part of Rohr’s midfield after our Pre 2018 WC friendly vs England. Infact I can count the number of matches he played for the SE after the 2018 WC on the fingers of one hand……1…yes, just 1 match vs Seychelles in September 2018. That is the last match Onazi ever played for the SE, once again, September 2018.
Mikel on the other hand retired from the national team after the 2018 WC, but came out of retirement 1 year later, just before the 2019 AFCON, but he was relegated to being a bit part player after a lazy showing in our first match vs Burundi.
In their absence, we had Iwobi COMPETENTLY marshalling our creative midfield and the pair of hardworking Etebo and Ndidi providing the right defensive anchor from midfield right behind him, giving him the opportunity to be free to roam and orchestrate damage on our opponents. In this period, we produced the top scorer of the 2019 AFCON qualifiers, top scorer of the 2019 AFCON itself as well as the top scorer of the 2021 AFCON, before y’all ganged up with lies and sacked Rohr because according to NFF officials “HE COULD WIN THE 2021 AFCON AND BECOME TOO DIFFICULT TO SACK”
We wanted to play Almighty Brazil and their coaches singled out Iwobi as the man to mark to keep the SE quiet.
I wonder how a team that “….struggles with both Defensive and most especially a Creative/Attacking midfielder…..” would produce 3 successive top scorers in 3 different assignments with different combinations of personnel.
In the absence of Onazi and Mikel, Rohr used Etebo, Ndidi, Ogu, Aribo, Onyeka, and Shehu Abdullahi to provide the necessary cover when needed. Under him, the SE were NEVER a 1 man team that would suffer because 1 person was not available. Even when we played Cape Verde, yes the same Cape Verde that just qualified for the WC ahead of Cameroon, right there in their backyard with 8 of out 1st team players missing, we still beat them 2-1 with a makeshift midfield of Kingsley Micheal, Innocent Bonke and Ahmed Musa
So wherever you got your lies that our midfield stopped functioning, when Ogenyi Onazi and Mikel Obi left the team after the 2019 Afcon, is what you will still need to explain to us next.
nicely put@ Dr Drey
One thing I don’t like about both Peseiro and Chelle is that they’re simply too defensive. Peseiro main strategy is to defend, giving possession to the opposition and hope we score on a counter. On the other hand, Chelle simply concedes possession and withdraw to be defensive after going in front. Both are dangerous way to play football especially knowing fully well that defending isn’t our players strength. That’s the main reason I stated that these coaches (after Rohr) don’t really understand our players capacity. They play based on names. That’s a disservice to the team.
Due to the short time to the Afcon, I have advised the dummies in the NFF to get rid of Ogunmodede and Ilechukwu and get Chelle better technical support. It’s quite obvious he’s technically short and his assistants aren’t any better. Although, I doubt the inept FA will ever do such. So, we are going for another heart break ride to the AFCON. However, if by any miracle, Chelle works magic (at least he believes in the efficiency of Vodoo) and the players lift their game, I would celebrate. As they say, ‘miracle no dey tire God’. Miracles do happen. Right?
he so-called decline during Rohr’s last days saw us record:
Last 6 games: 4W, 1D, 1L — 9Gf, 3Ga, +6Gd — 66.7% win ratio
Last 12 games: 6W, 4D, 2L — 17Gf, 8Ga, +9d —50% win ratio
Last 20 games: 9W, 7D, 3L — 28Gf, 16Ga, +12Gd — 45% win ratio
Liars will say the SE declined in Rohr’s last days, but FACTs show his win ratio increased
Liars will say will say we struggled to score goals in Rohr’s last days but our Gd:Gf ratio increased from 43% to 67%.
Spin artists refuse to acknowledge the fact that NFF made Rohr’s working conditions and environment toxic in those “last days”, simply because he refused to let the SE be Yaba Market for homebased and sub standard players.
They refuse to acknolege that Rohr was given a massive pay cut and a contract which Segun Odegbami described as “ONE DESIGNED FOR ROHR TO REJECT”
They refuse to acknowledge the fact that Rohr’s was stripped of his entire backroom staff by the NFF and Sunday Dare during those “last days”
They refuse to acknowledge that the NFF was openly overruling Rohr’s disciplinary decisions in the team, turning the SE to such an indisciplined bunch they now are today with little respect for the crucial nature of the assignments they carry out for the country.
They refuse to acknowlege that the non payment of SE bonuses started under him, a deliberate attempt to weaken team moral back then, which has now become a tradition they are struggling to eradicate till date.
They refuse to acknowledge the fact that a houseboy who has been notorious for being used by the NFF to cause confusion in the national team since the days of Stephen Keshi was forced on Rohr as his assistant. A certain Joseph Yobo with ZERO, qualifications, ZERO certifications and ZERO experience as coach. Giving the plays opposite instructions to whatever Rohr gives to them. Its been 4 years since the houseboy was relegated from his role and till today he has neither gotten his coaching badges nor sat on the bench of any football team, not even a high school team. The KARMA that will catch up with that one is still at the beer parlor enjoying it life.
These were the conditions he was subjected to work in in those “LAST DAYS”, yet could still manage to deliver even under the toxicity that surrounded him at that time. So if he could still churn out results and deliverables under such conditions and an imaginary “decline” worthy of a sack, then all these wannabees coaching the SE now should be in jail by now. They are nothing but outright useless.
But No, the cluelessness, daftness and incompetence of the 6th coaching change since Rohr left 4 years ago is still being pinned on Rohr…..LMAOoooo.
Rohr is the reason Chelle cant get the super eagles to play without Osimhen in 2025……LMAOoo.
International football works on a 4 year cycle, yet the incompetence of successive coaches to revive, revamp and revitalize the SE in 4 years is still Rohr’s fault……..LMAOoooo
Y’all should continue lying to yourselves that Chelle would have qualified us if he started the WCQ series…….we were able to hire him because he was SACKED by Mali for picking 1 win in the same first 4 matches, 3 of which were home matches. He had practically sunk their WC qualification hopes before the Malian FA woke up. He came to Nigeria at a time we had become desperate to revive our hopes and all hands were on deck from the NFF down to the players.
I can guarantee that if Chellie had started the qualifiers with us, given his inability to do jack without Osimhen, as well as the unseriousness of the players and the FA at that early stage, he too wouldn’t have done better than draw those first 4 matches and would have been fired by the NFF.
The reason he could gather 14 points was 95% down to the availability of Osimhen.
If Osimhen were to be available for our first 4 games, we wouldnt have needed to hire Chelle in the first place.
I hope someone will not someday come on CSN and blame Rohr for the inability of his johnny to RISE to the occasion whenever called upon…….LMAOoo….
Sincerely something significant happened to nigeria durin the game. I know our players are very unserious but truth be told DRC played game of intimidation which is not allowed by FiFa statutes. The question is when u notice this things why did u not openly rally the on field players to protest and refuse to continue the game even during penalty they were trowin things to distract and this is the point nigeria players should have protested vigorouly which even clubs in europe would have refuse to play further forcing the game to be abandoned and played later in an empty stadium which is likely goin to be fifa ruling bcud fifa hate with a passion intimidation of opposing team . Our officials failed the players in this regard. In the game against Gabon everyone played fairly ,no intimidatio. And no suspected voodoo acts . Gabon is far better statiscally but nigeria played them hands down fairly. Africa football have a long way to go. Something tells me DRC will do same in the intercontinental qualifiers and this time they will face disqualification for the opposing team will be watching keenly for any form of intimidation on field or outside and believe you me they will rally their players to stop playing. Even at the Afcon final CIV never did any voodoo intimidatoon or throw plastics bottles at opposin teams to intimidate them. Until africa is ready to play fairly ,no way for our best legs to play for africa on world stage. Bcus of repeated incidences of opposin teams which is far more common in our club competitions. I will advice that caf should to start a huge campaign with a slogan” NO INTIIMIDATION ,FAIR PLAY”
Last time I checked that match was played at a neutral venue, aren’t we giant of Africa anymore? Why can’t our fans on the stand do same? Yes I noticed the Congolese fans throwing stuff onto the pitch. And I am very sure we have more Nigerian living in Morocco than Congolese, so what’s ur point?