In a night of nerve-shredding drama and heroic heroics, Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles edged the Mohammed Salah-led Pharaohs of Egypt to claim the bronze medal at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. After 90 minutes of cagey, goalless football at the packed Stade Mohammed V, the battle was decided from the penalty spot \u2014 and the Eagles soared when it mattered most.<\/p>\n
The gruelling contest saw both sides cancel each other out in regulation time, with Nigeria twice denied \u2014 first when Paul Onuachu\u2019s lively effort was chalked off for a foul in the build-up, and later when substitute Ademola Lookman\u2019s strike was ruled out for offside. Despite dominating phases of the game, the Super Eagles were left to settle for a shootout after a stalemate that saw few clear chances.<\/p>\n
But in the penalty drama that followed, it was Stanley Nwabali \u2014 the Chippa United goalkeeper \u2014 who became the evening\u2019s unstoppable force. The custodian pulled off two massive saves to deny Egypt\u2019s biggest stars, including Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush, stunning the Pharaohs and silencing their fans.<\/p>\n
With cool heads from the spot, Nigeria held their composure. Akor Adams, Moses Simon and Alex Iwobi found the net, and when Ademola Lookman calmly slotted home the decisive penalty, the Super Eagles erupted \u2014 securing a 4\u20132 shootout victory and clinching a record-extending ninth AFCON third-place finish.<\/p>\n
For Egypt, the anguish will linger. The Pharaohs\u2019 golden hopes of bronze evaporated as Salah \u2014 ordinarily a talisman \u2014 saw his penalty brilliantly kept out by Nwabali, continuing a frustrating outing on the continent\u2019s grand stage.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s triumph not only underscores their resilience \u2014 bouncing back after a heart-breaking semi-final penalty defeat to hosts Morocco \u2014 but also cements their place among Africa\u2019s most consistent performers in AFCON history.<\/p>\n
SUPER EAGLES 0 (4) \u2014 PHARAOHS 0 (2)
\nNigeria are bronze medalists at AFCON 2025!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a night of nerve-shredding drama and heroic heroics, Nigeria\u2019s Super Eagles edged the Mohammed Salah-led Pharaohs of Egypt to claim the bronze medal at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. After 90 minutes of cagey, goalless football at the packed Stade Mohammed V, the battle was decided from the penalty spot \u2014 and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":97229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6317,7],"tags":[1009,249,7870,6111],"class_list":["post-97228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","category-news","tag-egypt","tag-nigeria","tag-nwabali","tag-penalties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/97229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}