Scandal: Nigeria miss out on 2026 World Cup, accuse Congo of ‘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 regular 90 minutes, and they qualified for the international playoff.

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

The Nigerian coach's accusation against the Republic of Congo's coaching staff

As soon as the match ended, Chelle confronted his colleague Sébastien Desabre and his entire coaching staff, upset by the alleged acts of black magic they performed to eliminate Nigeria. The coach explained the reason for his anger with a strong statement: “Throughout the penalty shootout, the people from Congo were doing voodoo to us. All the 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, although without precision or concrete proof: “He did something like this (shaking his right arm), I don't know if with a water bottle or something like that.”

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

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

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

The goal by the Porto player propelled his team during the first half-hour, in which they completely dominated the match and could have taken the lead with another shot by Onyenka that this time was saved by Mpasi-Nzau. However, in an isolated play, the Democratic Republic of the Congo found the equalizer. Part of the blame was on Alex Iwobi, who fell asleep in midfield, losing the ball at the start of the goal for Sebastien Desabre's team. Meschack Elia extended the play with a deep pass that Cedric Bakambu picked up, sending a cross into the small area, where Elia himself scored with a great shot after a timid clearance by Wilfred Ndidi.

In the second half, only Bakambu forced one of the two goalkeepers to intervene, and the clash went into extra time, where the referee disallowed two goals by Fiston Mayele and Noah Sadiki for previous fouls that could have tipped the balance in favor of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Inevitably, the match was decided by penalties, and Nigeria suffered the final blow with three misses by Calvin Bassey, Moses Simon, and Semi Ajayi. The first sent the ball over the crossbar, and the other two were stopped by Mpasi-Nzau, the hero of Congo in the dream of a country aspiring 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.