Things didn’t go smoothly for the Super Eagles as they suffered a 1-2 loss to the Amavubi at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in their final AFCON 2025 qualifier on Monday.
Going into the game, Austin Eguavoen's side had already secured qualification for next year's tournament in Morocco and retained their position as Group D winners.
Samuel Chukwueze put the hosts ahead in the 59th minute, but the visitors equalised through Ange Mutsinzi in the 72nd minute, with Innocent Nshuti scoring the winner for Rwanda just three minutes later.
A section of Super Eagles fans took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their dissatisfaction with the team's performance, directing criticism towards Victor Boniface, Gabriel Osho and Maduka Okoye for their individual displays.
Meanwhile, another fan called for the NFF to appoint a proper head coach for the Super Eagles, citing the need for improved tactics and performances.
Okoye made his first Super Eagles startin Nigeria's home defeat to Rwanda since September 2022.
The goalkeeper had been in and out of the fold ever since his blunder that saw Tunisia reach the quarter-finals of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) at the expense of Nigeria.
That incident earned Okoye the ire of his countrymen, expressed in the form of abuse and even death threats on social media. It is an episode Okoye, quite understandably, has struggled to put behind him, imposing on himself an exile that has seen him skip several assignments.
He had only made it as far as the bench in that period — thrice, most recently in September 2023 — with his sole appearance in that period coming in a low-profile friendly against the Algeria ‘B’ national team in September 2022; he marked that occasion by conceding another soft goal, improving neither his personal confidence nor his public image.
Boniface, meanwhile, is yet to open his scoring account for Nigeria after 10 appearances, while Osho made only his second appearance for the national team.
