Super Eagles of Nigeria coach Eric Chelle has explained why the home-based Eagles lost their CHAN 2024 opening match against Senegal. The defending champions beat Nigeria 1-0 on Tuesday.
The game played at the Amaan Stadium was a drab, physical one marred by fouls and reckless challenges.
An error from Nigeria’s Leonard Ngenge allowed Senegal’s Gomis Christian to tap home the game’s only goal. Nigeria’s coach Chelle insists they lost because their opponents were more aggressive.
He said via Brila FM, “Senegal were more aggressive than us. They put more intensity than us and this is logical, it’s normal—they deserve this victory.
“In the second half, we gave away the goal. A little mistake cost us. This is normal because we never got into the game mentally, or maybe we were scared about something.
“We need to try to play football. We enjoy it when we play, create chances to score, keep the ball—but when we lose the ball for 20 minutes, they score, and this is football.
“We need to win games, we must be ambitious, and to do that, we need to be more aggressive. We lost every duel today, and we must do better.
“This is the first match, and we have two games to go. We need to change our state of mind and be more aggressive on the pitch. You can’t play football if you lose every duel in the game.
“In the first half, we created no chance to score. You need to be more aggressive—offensively and defensively. I think we played well at times, but the reality is we made just one mistake. So, we need to improve our state of mind and be more competitive, more aggressive.”
And looking ahead to their next game he says, “Against Sudan and Congo, if we play like this and are scared of other teams, we will return to Nigeria quickly. Senegal is a good team, and I told you that we want to take it game by game.
“Our second game, we need to win to qualify. This is football. If you want to play, you must be more aggressive. The competition just started, and there are a lot of good teams in this tournament.
“There is a lot of intensity. The teams try to play, and there was a lot of quality in the game because the pitch is very good, and the teams want to play.
“I’m surprised by the intensity—it’s a lot. In my view, it’s a great CHAN tournament. Our CHAN campaign starts now, and we’ll see what happens in the second game.”
The Nigerians have a long rest before their next match against Sudan on the 12th of August at the same Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar. Another lose could mean a quick return to Nigeria.
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