Nigeria ‘ll not be easy, but Algeria will triumph, says Mahrez

The Super Eagles have threatened to boycott their Morocco 2025 Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal game against Algeria over the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) refusal to settle their backlog of allowances.
 
This is the second time in a consecutive championship that the players are taking this route to force the NFF to settle their allowances. At the Africa playoff for the 2026 World Cup in Morocco, in November, the Super Eagles also shunned training ahead of the final clash with DR Congo over the same issue.
  
Nigeria eventually lost the game to the Congolese.
Yesterday, the Super Eagles accused the NFF of reneging on their agreement to settle all their entitlements, saying that the federation has not been sincere in its dealings with them.
 
They alleged that the NFF promised to pay the players and coaching staff ahead of the AFCON, saying that the federation has been playing on their intelligence.
 
A source close to the players said that, unlike the playoff incident where the players refused to train ahead of the final match, the team trained normally yesterday. “But they said that they will not travel to Marrakech as planned today unless the NFF or the Federal Government settles their allowances.”
 
Meanwhile, Algeria’s captain, Riyadh Mahrez, is sure that the Desert Foxes will overcome the Super Eagles in their Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal clash on Saturday, admitting, however, that the game will not be easy.
 
Algeria and Nigeria will meet in a repeat of the 2019 semifinal in Egypt, where Algeria defeated Nigeria 2-1, with Mahrez scoring the decisive goal via a last-minute free kick.
 
Speaking after Algeria’s defeat of DR Congo on Tuesday to earn the right to face Nigeria, Mahrez said that his team deserved to qualify for the quarterfinals of AFCON, after the “difficult” victory (1-0) against the Democratic Republic of Congo in the round of 16.
 
He told m.elbotola.com: “I think over the whole game, if the scales were to tip one way, it was ours. We played against a good Congolese team, who played with cohesion and left little space, but we were solid.
 
“We didn’t concede many chances, and we always know that we have players capable of making the difference.
 
On the clash against Nigeria in the quarterfinals, Mahrez said: “Nigeria? We know them well, the match will not be easy. A free kick in the last minute again? We will see, everything is possible,” he said in apparent reference to the teams’ last meeting in Cairo, in 2019.
 Saturday’s game will start at 5:00 p.m. at the Grand Stadium of Marrakech.