‘Nigeria, superior to Morocco’ – French manager tips Super Eagles for AFCON 2025 final

Nigeria’s growing reputation as the most feared team at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations has received another powerful endorsement after former Djibouti coach Julien Mette declared the Super Eagles ‘superior' to hosts Morocco ahead of Wednesday’s semi-final in Rabat, Soccernet.ng reports.

The three-time African champions will face Morocco at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium with both sides still unbeaten in the tournament, but with momentum, numbers and recent performances increasingly tilting in Nigeria’s favour.

Morocco, buoyed by home support, have won four matches and drawn one, with their most convincing display coming in the quarter-finals where they dispatched Cameroon 2-0.

Yet even that run has done little to quieten the growing belief that their toughest test is still to come.

Nigeria arrive in Rabat as the competition’s most devastating attacking force. The Super Eagles have scored a tournament-high and national record 14 goals in five matches, winning every game against Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Mozambique and Algeria. No other team remains with a perfect record.

Their 2-0 quarter-final win over Algeria was particularly eye-catching. Against one of Africa’s top five sides, who had also won all four of their previous matches, Nigeria dominated from the first whistle to the last, creating chance after chance and restricting Algeria to no shots on target. The scoreline could have been far heavier.

So commanding was that performance that even some Moroccan supporters have begun to express anxiety ahead of the semi-final.

French-born coach Julien Mette, who had earlier tipped Morocco to win the tournament, has now changed his stance.

While speaking as a pundit on After Foot RMC, he said:

“Offensively, Nigeria is superior to Morocco. On the Moroccan side, there's Brahim Diaz emerging, but if he goes out… Nigeria is capable of doing everything, killing you on the break, in structured attack, on set pieces.”

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Mette: ‘No team like Nigeria in Africa right now’

Mette went further when asked if Morocco should be worried.

“There is no team equivalent to Nigeria in terms of athletic data, strength, combativeness in duels… We're going to have to beat them in the other areas.”

The semi-final carries historic weight as well as present-day significance. Nigeria are chasing a fourth AFCON title, while Morocco are seeking their first since 1976.

This will be the sixth meeting between both sides at the Africa Cup of Nations and the first in 22 years. All five previous AFCON encounters have produced a winner. It is also only the second time they meet in a semi-final, the first coming in 1980, when Nigeria won 1-0 through a ninth-minute Felix Owolabi goal on their way to lifting the trophy.

Their AFCON history stretches back to 1976, when Morocco won two group-stage meetings en route to their only title. Nigeria eliminated Morocco in 2000, while the Atlas Lions won their last AFCON meeting in 2004.