Eric Chelle Reacts After CHAN Eagles Lose Opening Match to Senegal
- Super Eagles team B lost their opening match of CHAN 2024 to defending champions Senegal
- Christian Gomis’ 75th-minute strike was enough for Senegal to claim all three points in Zanzibar
- Nigeria's head coach, Eric Chelle, has shared his thoughts after his first defeat in charge of the team
Eric Chelle has shared his thoughts after Nigeria lost their opening match of the 2024 African Nations Championship 1-0 to Senegal in Zanzibar.
The CHAN Eagles faced the defending champions in the opening game, and Christian Gomis' 75th-minute strike was enough to seal the three points.
Source: Getty Images
Gomis capitalised on an error in the Eagles' defence in the second half when Nigeria were in control, thus overturning the momentum of the match.
As noted by CAF Online, Nigeria's best chance fell to Remo Stars midfielder Sikiru Alimi in the first half, but goalkeeper Marc Diouf thwarted his efforts.
Thenff.com reports that Nigeria is at the bottom of the table after Congo and Sudan played a 1-1 draw earlier. The home-based Eagles will face Sudan next Tuesday.
Eric Chelle reacts to Nigeria's loss
Head coach Eric Chelle looked visibly distraught during his post-match conference and admitted that Senegal deserved the victory.
“Senegal deserved this victory because we only played 20 minutes in the 2nd half, and during the first half, I never organised my team,” he said.
“Senegal was more aggressive than us, they put more intensity than us, so for me, they deserve this victory.”
Chelle criticised his team's performance, claiming they played as if they were scared of something and needed to play football in subsequent games.
“In the second half we gave the goal through a little mistake, this is normal because we never get into the game mentally, or maybe we're scared of something,” he added.
“We need to try to play football. During the 20 minutes we played football, we created the chance to score and kept the ball during this 20 minutes.
“This is football, but to win games, to be ambitious, we need to be more aggressive for the second ball, for the duels. In the first half, we lost every duel.”
“This is the first match, we have two more matches, but we need to change our state of mind,” he concluded.
Source: Twitter
Nigerians were divided on who to blame for the result. Some blamed Chelle for his in-game management and said he should have allowed his local assistants, Daniel Ogunmodede and Fidelis Ilechukwu, to oversee the match.
Other sections of the fans blamed the loss on the quality of the players, adding that it is a setback to the agitation to include home-based players in the Super Eagles.
Junior Nduka vows to win CHAN
Legit.ng earlier reported that team captain Junior Nduka vowed to win CHAN ahead of the opening match against the tournament’s defending champions, Senegal.
The motivation is fuelled by the ongoing cash splash in the country after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rewarded Super Falcons and D'Tigress with $100,000.
Proofreading by Omoleye Omoruyi, copy editor at Legit.ng.
Source: Legit.ng
