Scandal: Nigeria miss out on 2026 World Cup, accuse Congo of using 'voodoo' | OneFootball

Nigeria did not qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada after losing to the Republic of Congo 3-4 in a penalty shootout, following a 1-1 draw during the 90 minutes of regulation, and will now play in the international playoff.

The match ended in a real scandal after the Nigerian coach, Eric Chelle, accused the Congo coaching staff of practicing black magic during the penalty shootout.

The accusation by Nigeria’s coach against the Republic of Congo’s coaching staff

As soon as the match ended, Chelle confronted his counterpart Sébastien Desabre and his entire coaching staff, upset over the alleged acts of black magic they performed to eliminate Nigeria. The coach explained the reason for his anger with a forceful statement: “During the entire penalty shootout, the Congo people were doing voodoo to us. The whole time. That’s why I was a bit nervous with him.”

When asked for details about what he had seen, the coach mentioned a particular gesture, though without precision or concrete proof: “He did something like this (shaking his right arm), I don’t know if it was with a water bottle or something like that.”

How did the match between Nigeria and the Republic of Congo unfold?

The Le Havre goalkeeper was the hero of a tough, do-or-die match that knocked out one of Africa’s classic teams, which will miss its second consecutive World Cup after not participating in Qatar 2022.

Moreover, Mpasi-Nzau allowed the Democratic Republic of Congo to dream of a World Cup appearance they haven’t achieved since the 1974 World Cup in Germany, when the country was known as Zaire.

The goal by the Porto player boosted his team during the first half hour, in which they completely dominated the match and could have gone ahead with another shot from Onyenka, which this time was saved by Mpasi-Nzau. However, in an isolated play, the Democratic Republic of Congo found the equalizer. Part of the blame went to Alex Iwobi, who was caught napping in midfield and lost the ball at the start of the goal for Sébastien Desabre’s team. Meschack Elia extended the play with a through ball to Cedric Bakambu, who sent a cross into the six-yard box, where Elia himself finished with a great shot after a timid clearance by Wilfred Ndidi.

In the second half, only Bakambu forced one of the two goalkeepers into action, and the match went into extra time, during which the referee disallowed two goals by Fiston Mayele and Noah Sadiki for prior fouls that could have tipped the balance in favor of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Inevitably, the match was decided by penalties, and there Nigeria suffered the final blow with three misses from Calvin Bassey, Moses Simon, and Semi Ajayi. The first sent the ball over the crossbar, and the other two were stopped by Mpasi-Nzau, Congo’s hero in the dream of a country hoping to return to a World Cup 52 years later.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.