AFCON 2025: Super Eagles lose another game without Osimhen as Egypt edge Nigeria

Nigeria stumble before the AFCON in friendly defeat to Egypt.

Nigeria were beaten in their AFCON 2025 preparatory friendly against Egypt. The Pharaohs edged the Super Eagles through a Mostafa Mohamed second-half strike to win 2–1.

Mahmoud Saber opened the scoring for Egypt before Chidozie Awaziem retired parity before half time. Mostafa's goal was ultimately the winner condemning Eric Chelle's side to consecutive defeats before the AFCON opener against Tanzania.

Key match details

Eric Chelle started with a second-string side, with heavy hitters like Victor Osimhen, Ademola Lookman and Alex Iwobi left out of the side. 

Paul Onuachu led the line, with Sevilla’s Chidera Ejuke supporting him upfront. The centre-back pairing was also a new one, with Igoh Ogbu partnering Nantes Chidozie Awaziem. 

Egypt's head coach, Hossam Hassan, also named a changed side, with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Omar Marmoush left out of the side. In their absence, Zizo stole the show, setting up Egypt's two goals in the game. 

The opener came before the half-hour mark when Al Ahly’s Mohamed Hany played the ball through Nigeria’s backline to find Zizo. The 29-year-old squared the ball to Saber, who finished into a vacated goal. 

The Super Eagles, determined not to go into half-time on the back foot, had a barrage of attacks late in the first-half which bore fruit. 

One such attack led to a foul on the left side of Egypt's area. Zaidu Sanusi took the resulting free kick, which was poorly dealt with by Mohamed El-Shenawy. The ball fell kindly to the path of Chidozie Awaziem, who graciously headed it in at the back post. 

Less than 10 minutes after resumption, Egypt restored their lead. Zizo controversially beat Nigeria’s offside trap before setting up Mostafa, whose shot powered through Amas Obasogie, who replaced Stanley Nwabali at half-time. 

Egypt held on to the lead till the end of the game and scored their first win against Nigeria since the 2016 AFCON qualifiers. 

Meanwhile, the defeat continues a run of poor results for the Super Eagles when Osimhen is not in the team. The team struggled through World Cup qualifying, failing to win any of the five matches Osimhen was absent for. His unavailability has been faulted for Nigeria's failure to qualify for next year's showpiece.