Super Eagles’ technical adviser, Eric Chelle has pinpointed what went wrong in Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Senegal at the Championship of African Nations (CHAN 2025), as he disclosed that his players were scared of something during the match.
Sports247 reports that, while observers felt the home-based Eagles gave a good account of themselves in holding the defending champions for a long part of the game, Eric Chelle pointed out that they were not mentally balanced and eventually gave away the only goal with a simple mistake.
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The Franco-Malian tactician expatiated, “Senegal were more aggressive than us, and they put in more intensity than us. In the second half, we gave them a goal with a little mistake.
“We never got into the game. Maybe mentally or maybe we were scared about something; but we need to try and play football.”
Eric Chelle then projected into Tuesday’s second group game against Sudan and the last one versus Congo, both of which he acknowledged that his team must win in order to qualify for the next round of the ongoing championship.
“We need to improve in our state of mind. We need to be more competitive, more aggressive and determined.
“For the games against Sudan and Congo, we must not be scared about anything, or we’ll be going back to Nigeria quickly.
“We need to take them game after game, and we need to win them both for us to qualify,” the former Mali national team gaffer admitted.
