Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle expressed concerns regarding the conduct of the Democratic Republic of Congo during the penalty shoot-out in the World Cup qualifying playoff final held in Morocco.
Chelle alleged that the Congolese team employed “voodoo” practices during this critical phase of the match.
In the match, Nigeria initially took the lead in the third minute with a deflected goal from Frank Onyeka. However, DR Congo equalized later in the first half with a goal from Meschak Elia.
After a tense match that concluded 1–1 following 120 minutes of play, the game went to penalties, where DR Congo secured their victory to advance to the final stage of the qualifying playoffs.
Following the conclusion of the shoot-out, which ended with Chancel Mbemba scoring the decisive penalty, Chelle approached the DR Congo technical area and confronted various members of their coaching staff, including head coach Sébastien Desabre, before being calmed down by officials from Nigeria.
Desabre, who spoke first at the post-match press conference, downplayed the incident, describing it as “not an issue.”
Chelle, however, insisted otherwise. He claimed that members of the Congolese bench resorted to “voodoo” rituals during every penalty kick and said he saw someone in their technical area using “something water” in an attempt to jinx Nigerian players.
“During all the penalty sessions, the guy from Congo did some voodoo,” Chelle said.
“Every time, so this is why I was a little nervous after him.”
When asked what he saw the Congo guy doing, Chelle added, “Yeah, something like, I don’t know if it’s water or something like that [he was spraying it up].”
