By Eniola Olatunji reporting for Patmos Media Line
…Mohammed Salah Leaves AFCON without a Medal, Loses Penalty!
THE NIGERIAN Super Eagles on Saturday night at the glamorous city of Casablanca, Morocco clinched her 9th Bronze medal in AFCON history by dashing the hopes of the Pharaohs of Egypt and their Captain, legendary Mohammed Salah to go back to Cairo and celebrate a medal when Nigeria beat them via penalty shootout exactly the way Morocco stopped Nigeria in the semifinal 4-2.
Unfortunately for Salah he retires with this match without a medal and Goalkeeper Nwabali saving his kick which was the first for Egypt before Nwabali again saved the second kick now from Omar Marmous with his leg no wonder CAF promptly announced Nwabali as the MANOF THE MATCH. The cover photo by Eniola Olatunji is Nwabali speaking after he got his award.
Fisayo Dele-Bahiru who scored against Morocco in penalty lost the first kick for Nigeria before Akor Adams scored; Moses Simon also scored; penalty shy Alex Iwobi also scored, then former African Footballer of the Year, Ademola Lookman sealed the Bronze medal for Nigeria with a dazzling kick.
This shootout is 48th ever at AFCON history and the 3rd at 2025 AFCON tournament, one at the Quarterfinals, one that involved Nigeria versus Morocco at the semifinal and now this Nigeria versus Egypt.
CAF had banned two pivotal players of Egypt, Marwan Attia and Salah Mohsen for two matches for alleged misconduct against Senegal in the semifinal. Nigeria benched Captain Wilfred Ndidi, star boy Victor Osimhen; Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey were also serving a match ban so Simon Moses wore the captain’s arm band.
Lookman and Iwobi later came into the match in the second half. Simon Moses got a yellow in the 45th and will miss the next CAF organized match.
Nigeria got a goal in the 36th minute when skyscraper Paul Onuachu headed into net a lofty pass from Samuel Chukwueze that beat Goalkeeper Oufa Shobeir of Egypt neatly, but VAR disallowed the goal for an elbow foul from Mr. Skyscraper.
Egypt was not fanciful despite dominating the match as the team was only able to make a shot on target in 90 minutes from 4 shots at goal but thank God for their defence as Nigeria had 5 shots at goal and all 5 were on target, Nigeria had 4-2 corner kicks which the Defence warded off. Egypt came to impress but were under pressure as the Moroccan fans at the stands raised massive support for Nigeria booing every Egyptian move. They had 53-47% ball possession stringing 459-392 passes that produced no goal. Nigeria bagged all the 3 yellow cards of the match from 18-15 foul calls against Nigeria.
On historical records Egypt looks like Goliath to Nigeria having met 7 times with Egypt winning 4 of the matches, Nigeria won twice; of the 17 goals scored Egypt scored 10. Four times both countries met at AFCON where Egypt won twice and drew once. Egypt has the highest victory scores of 3-2 achieved in a friendly match of 12th April 2012.
Take a look at their last six encounters. Egypt 3-Nigeria 2 in a friendly of 12th April 2012; played 1-1 at an AFCON match of 25th March 2016; piped Nigeria 1-0 at another AFCON match of 29th March 2016 but Nigeria won by a lone goal in a friendly of 26th March 2019; at AFCON 2022 Nigeria at Group D match won by a lone goal scored by Kelechi Ihenacho in the 30th minute and before AFCON 2025 began Egypt won 2-1 in a friendly match. Kelechi and five other legendary Nigerian players just flew into Morocco to support Nigeria against Egypt.
Pharaohs of Egypt scored 9 goals conceding 4 goals with 2 clean slates defeating Zimbabwe 2-1; piped South Africa by a lone goal and played goalless with Angola at the group stages before halting the Cheetahs of Benin 3-1 at the round of 16 games; narrowly edged out Ivory Coast 3-2 at the quarterfinal and lost in the semifinal to Senegal by a lone goal.
Nigeria scored a whopping 14 goals conceding 4 with 2 clean slates beating Tanzania 2-1; defeating Tunisia 3-2 and halting Uganda 3-1 at the group games before mauling Mozambique with a thunderous 4-0 in the round of 16; silenced Algeria 2-0 in the quarterfinal and lost in the semifinal 4-2 on penalties after a pulsating 0-0 after 120 minutes.
Egypt ranked 35 in the world appearing for the 27th time at the Mundial is the most decorated national team on the continent winning AFCON titles seven times in 1957, 1959, 1986, 1998, 2006, 2008 and 2010.
Nigeria ranked 38 in the world is making her 21st appearances at the Mundial winning the title three times in 1980, 1994 and 2013 won Silver five times and Bronze eight times.
The finals will be a Lions war between hosts Atlas Lions of Morocco and former Champions Teranga Lions of Senegal in Rabat at 9.00pm.
Nigeria is to travel to Rabat tomorrow morning to collect their bronze medals after the conclusion of the final game when award ceremonies will take place.
#AFCON25 #CAF #FRMF #FMF #SAFA
#FAFA #EFA #NFF.
