Eric Chelle, Super Eagles head coach has blamed Nigeria’s 1-0 lose to Senegal to lack of intensity and aggression on the part of his players in their Group D opener of the ongoing 2024 Chan tournament in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.
Speaking during the post match conference, Chelle said his players appeared nervous, and failed to mentally assert their dominance, admitting that Senegal deserved to win, as they were more proactive and goal-oriented.
“Senegal was more aggressive than us, they put more intensity, for me it is normal, they deserve the victory, we didn’t get into the game maybe mentally or we are scared of something.”
With two more games to be played in the group, Chelle has called on his players to be more ambitious and improve their state of mind.
He noted that they most play with aggression offensively and defensively, and issued a warning that a lack of ambitious play could lead to the team’s elimination from the tournament.
“We need to be ambitious and be more aggressive , we lost most duels, this is the first match, we have two more games again in the group, we created no chance to score in the first half, so we need to be more aggressive offensively and defensively.”
“Even though we lost most duels defensively, I see good play and we need to improve our state of mind and be more competitive, because if we play like this against Congo and Sudan, we might be returning back to Nigeria. we have to win our next game if we want to hope to qualify.” He stated.
Nigeria will be looking forward to getting a positive result when they play Sudan on 12 Aug, 2025, at the Amani Stadium, Tanzania.
