Super Eagles’ coach, Eric Sekou Chelle on Tuesday night in Antalya, Turkey won his second trophy with the Nigerian national team, despite seeing his side struggle to a 2-2 draw with World Cup-bound Jordan, Sports247 reports.
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Chelle heaved a sigh of relief as his error-strewn side romped from an early goal down to level scores, then gave up their lead, on a night Moses Simon captained the squad and scored his second goal at the four-nation competition.
Also with a historic goal on the night in Antalya was Glasgow Rangers of Scotland defender, Emmanuel Fernandez, who made the best of his second game and first start in Nigeria’s colours to hit target in the 42nd minute.
The sizzler by Fernandez, off a well-placed cross by Birmingham City of England full-back, Bright Osayi-Samuel, took the Eagles 2-1 up into half time, but an injury copped by stand-in goalkeeper, Francis Ukozor caused more troubles for Nigeria.
Chelle appeared to lose his cool, as he sent on the experienced duo of Alex Iwobi and substantive captain, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi in the 59th minute, but his rushed substitutions, along with Samuel Chukwueze and Philip Otele destabilized his side.
Uzoho’s replacement, Adebayo Adeleye first made a towering save to deny the Jordanians a much-sort after equalizer in the final match of the four-nation mini-competition organised by their football association, but they soon got their goal.
It came in the 77th minute of play, after Adeleye mistimed a loose ball in the box and hastily rushed off his line, only to see an opposing player slot a low cross past him and a lurking attacker slotted it home for Jordan’s much-anticipated equalizer.
A red card for Iwobi (on the night he got his 98th cap for the Super Eagles) took the sail out of Nigeria’s search for a winning goal, as such a long time was spent arguing over the ref’s decision and he blew the final whistle barely two minutes later.
That meant the game ended 2-2, in a similar way to how it had been when Nigeria drew with Jamaica in their decisive match at the 2025 Unity Cup in London, where Chelle won his first four-nation trophy with the Super Eagles on May 31st.
Back then, the Eagles required a penalty shoot-out to carry the day at Brentford’s B-Tech Community Stadium, but the story was different on Tuesday, as Nigeria gained from Iran’s shock 5-0 maul of Costa Rica for Chelle’s side to top the table.
A 2-1 win over Iran in their first match of this mini-tournament on Friday meant Chelle and his players would smile gleefully to the trophy presented by Jordan Football Association (JFA) and atone for the agony they got from their last four-nation competition.
That was in November, when another draw on the last day of the mini-competition ended with defeat to DR Congo via the lottery of penalties, thereby ruling the Eagles out of contention for this year’s World Cup in USA, Canada and Mexico.
Incidentally, while Chelle and his players were celebrating their second four-nation trophy in Turkey, the same team they defeated to win the Unity Cup last year in London, Jamaica, lost the intercontinental play-off final to DR Congo.
While The Leopards gained their second ever World Cup ticket on Tuesday night in Mexico City, Nigeria’s players and officials consoled themselves with having topped two World Cup-bound teams towards winning another four-nation trophy in Antalya, Turkey.
