The inability of Real Madrid star, Brahim Diaz to score a penalty for hosts Morocco in Sunday’s final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has taken Nigeria’s heat of guilt away from Samuel Chukwueze.
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Sports247 reports that Chukwueze had faced intense criticism from angry Nigerian football fans on social media after he lost his spot kick in the semi-finals defeat by Morocco.
The Fulham of England winger’s failure to score was followed by a miss from fellow-left-footer, Bruno Onyemachi, and Nigeria eventually lost the shootout 4-2 to The Atlas Lions.
However, Nigerians were particularly incensed with how Chukwueze took his penalty lamely and was seen munching bubble gum before going for the kick, which left many fans condemning his apparent nonchalance.
Ironically, Morocco suffered a similar but more painful scenario on Sunday, as Diaz opted to show off with a pinaka kick against Senegal, and his team went on to lose the final 1-0 on home soil.
The Senegalese had almost abandoned the match, in protest of the penalty awarded by VAR with two minutes left on the clock, before former two-time African Footballer of The Year, Sadio Mane begged his teammates to return.
Incidentally, Diaz’s missed spot kick came a day after another former two-time African Footballer of The Year, Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush of Manchester City both lost spot kicks in Egypt’s third place loss to Nigeria on Saturday.
A cross-section of sympathetic Nigerian fans have now taken to social media in defence of Chukwueze, with references to the fact that Diaz, Salah and Marmoush are all rated above him yet lost crucial spot kicks that led to defeats for their teams.
One of the posts stated, “Let us say thank God for Chukwueze’s life that we still won bronze. He cannot be blamed again because big players like Diaz, Salah and Marmoush also lost important penalty kicks in this competition.”
