Segun Oluwaniyi

Algeria 3-0 down in the second half and heading out CIV tearing them apart in defense and Mahrez just smashed a penalty off the post. Algeria had been 36 matches unbeaten before this and have now lost consecutively to CIV and Equatorial Guinea. I suppose they were favourites, but I'd never select a North African side as my choice to win an AFCON in West Africa. So, this means that Egypt will face CIV next round and Comoros Islands are now through. Crazy tournament.

Possibly. 3 million is a bargain for anyone with experience at a decent level of football in 2022. He is not without talent, but if I was to make a prediction, it would be that he will be sent on loan to _______spor in 12-18 months time.

Honestly, this guy is nothing special to me. He is quick, hardworking, and a decent dribbler, but will not stand out in the Premier League, imo. Just not a decisive player; poor final ball most of the time, not very prolific, not the kind of player with very intelligent movement, etc. Even his speed is not impressive at this level. You never know for sure, I never thought Dennis would produce like this in England, and maybe he will benefit from playing with ten other Nigerians at Watford, but I prefer Moses Simon of Nantes to him in the national team and will prefer Ademola Lookman once he finishes his switch. That gives you an idea of how I view him. US have improved talent compared to 2018, but results wise it is the same as always for them, outside of a 2 very close wins over Mexico (who is no longer superior to them, tbf). They won Gold Cup, which was played at home with reserve players, and it has been the usual story in World Cup qualifying of easily winning in the US and struggling consistently in away journeys to Central America and the Caribbean. I find it hard to judge them as a team, rather than just names, tbh. Striker is easily the weakness in terms of talent.

Ghana Out of AFCON and last in their group after losing to Comoros.

Frankly, the relatively slow movement of this window was always going to be the case, unless the plan was just to buy every player available for an easy transfer or spend wildly on transfer fees and wages. NUFC is in possibly the worst position you can think of to complete the kind of signings it needs. January is always a very difficult period to buy in and is generally used to add couple of players or get a fee for someone who won't sign a contract, not to rebuild an entire side. With relegation looking likely, players in stable situations are going to be extremely hesitant to join. Wages usually trump anything, but top prospects and established players are not going to sign up to play against Wycombe next season. There is also the added difficulty of dealing with suddenly being the world's richest club. Premier League clubs likely will not want to sell to Newcastle at all and others will try to wildly drive up fees, especially in January. Realistically, this window was always going to be about just adding 4-6 quality players that will improve the team. It is likely this will still happen, NUFC and Villa are the only Premier League clubs to have spent substantial money in the window and that will not be the case by the end of it, most of the transfers that will occur in this window have yet to be completed in general. Rather than the speed of recruitment, the issue is that the expected lift from Howe's arrival and the excited atmosphere around the club has just not materialised. The standard of football has gone up, the atmosphere at the ground has improved markedly, but it has not translated into results, that is really the cause of the desperation here.

Seriously, this day of AFCON has been a disgrace They played the wrong anthem for Mauritania (the old one, it changed a few years ago) on three separate occasions, spent five minutes trying to find the new one and then told the players to sing it themselves and just started the match. These people are not right in their head.

Did not like Howe's description of Wilson's injury at all. Feeling a kick in the back of your leg when no one has touched you is the usual description of how it feels to tear your achilles.

Thought the opposite. Boy was class when he managed to get involved, but still seems very sluggish and laboured compared to when he first broke through. He is so often second to balls or trailing play. I like him, but he needs to sort out his physicality to be a consistent Premier League player.

Actually think Longstaff has been very good today in moments, but he seems physically incapable of completing at this level for some reason. It is a weird progression from age 20 to 23, it wasn't the case when he first broke through. I still have hope for him until a serious fitness regime.

Not complaining in this instance, but is there any reason for six minutes extra time here? Hasn't been a large amount of injury or time wasting.

Dwight Gayle, still here, five years after he was relevant to the level of football the club is completing at.

Mourinho zone? This is flattery. He is in the Bruce zone. We do not have to euphemise because he is liked here. Guy is going to rightfully be sacked for taking a side that was challenging for Europe last season and sending them hurtling towards the relegation zone in haste. They were not even able to progress in the League Cup. Nothing in Mourinho's career has been anything like this disaster at Everton. He should just take whatever funds they will give him to go away, take a rest, and find new opportunity to start over. He is a proven manager; it will not be an issue for him.

PSG are unbelievably terrible. It is an achievement to have this group of players and play this poorly. It is a shame they are winning Ligue 1 in such easy fashion; a statement to the quality of the sides below them rather than any credit to them. Messi is genuinely horrendous, and the side looks no better than the one from last season. The football they are playing is actually worse. There is more quality to bail them out of the consistently underwhelming league performances, but they will perform worse in the Champions League without some serious change. Nice are another side that frankly deserved to defeat them.

Catch it or push it behind for a corner. Either is preferable to pushing it directly back into a dangerous area.

Looking for a penalty, rather than a goal, shows a lack of confidence. You have to expect the contact and try whatever you can to touch the ball in that situation.

Cameroon held on to beat CIV after a Toko-Ekambi goal, so the teams in the CAF playoffs till be as follows: Seeded: Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Nigeria Unseeded Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, and DR Congo Draw is in December. Will be a very tough round, No weak teams at all, might just be the ten best period, imo. It is a bad combination of fairly diffuse talent and bad performances at World Cups. We can't claim more teams, the only time more than one made it out the group was 2014, and 0 made it out last time as Senegal and Nigeria both wasted good chances. At the same time there are also significantly more strong teams than in Asia or North America, so it is difficult. Better qualifying will be the only benefit of the bastard 48 team World Cup. Nigeria has been awful in this qualification, but to be frank muddling through with mediocrity, despite an array of talent and resources, is the Nigerian way in all walks of life. The team is strong in terms of talent, I think we have a good chance still.

African qualifying is always heart-attack inducing. Every team guaranteed to face pressure matches because of this format, plus the usual factors that make playing on the continent difficult in general. The playoff teams will be set today. Nigeria barely survived to make the playoff after a terrible draw against Cape Verde at home, same for Algeria surviving with a 2-2 draw at home against Burkina Faso. Ghana advanced over South Africa based on this phantom penalty, who are appealing to FIFA: Cameroon v. Côte d'Ivoire starting now, one will go to the playoff round and one will go home, CIV just need a draw. From what I've seen of the two, Canada may just be better at the moment. Mexico are laboured and seem poorly coached, while Davies, David, and Buchanan are all extremely fast and dangerous players.

This was posted before it was disallowed on my slow stream of the match, tbf.

How many times is the best aerially dominant forward in the league going to be allowed free headers at the goal. Luck of this team today is incredible.

Apologies to those with a natural disdain for Sunderland through life experience, but the club I hate most will always be Manchester United. I despise them.

Their best central defender had his leg snapped in preseason, tbf. But agreed if Soyuncu doesn't regain form they'll struggle to get top six despite all the attacking talent.

Class goal by Osimhen, we have a real player if he can just calm down a bit and stop snatching at this chances, boy has everything you would want physically in a striker. Leicester have so many exciting players going forward, the biggest problem they might have is just keeping all of them happy. It has to be tough for the likes of Iheanacho, Daka, and Soumare to be substitutes most matches, even though there are good players in front of them.

Woodman is a watsepipe. Complete rubbish in this match. Two goals from two simple saves.

Almiron has been incredible.

Keeping you out and targeting with pace is exactly what Newcastle did for 45 minutes. This is a side without any serious striker available and a keeper entirely unproven at this level that consequently hasn't taken it's chances and conceded from a keeper error. Don't confuse being a rubbish side with some football philosophy.