Nigeria full back Bright Osayi-Samuel has blasted Ghana referee Daniel Laryea for his performance while officiating Nigeria’s game against Morocco.
Osayi-Samuel called Laryea’s performance appalling while sharing his thoughts about the game that had Nigeria lose to Morocco in a penalty shootout in the 2025 AFCON semifinals.
The Super Eagles were aiming to make it to the final for the second edition in a row but their quest was brought to an end by the host nation who had Yassine Bonou save two penalties to clinch the win for the Atlas Lions.
Like many Nigerians, Osayi-Samuel was far from happy with the performance of referee Daniel Laryea and stated that,
“Painful, very painful- to lose this semifinal game- to obviously lose. I think we played very well.”
“The back four was amazing, I’m proud of the team. It’s just really painful that we lost on penalties…today we didn’t win that.”
“One thing I would say is that the referee was appalling; not saying that that’s the reason why we lost but [he was] making very wrong decisions and it’s really painful to see refs like that in a big game like today” Osayi Samuel said.
Nigeria will take on Egypt in the bronze game on Saturday, January 17 at 16:00 GMT.
