Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has said all hopes are not lost despite his team’s humiliating 3-0 defeat to Guinea-Bissau, in Tuesday’s matchday 2, Group L 2027 African Cup of Nations qualifier.
Nigeria were outclassed at the Estadio 24 de Setembro in Bissau, just three days after defeating Madagascar 2-1 in Uyo to kick off their campaign.
The loss means the three-time African champions are second on three points from two games, while Guinea-Bissau maintain top spot on six points from the same number of games played.
Reflecting after the loss, Chelle admitted Guinea-Bissau were the better team, but said the poor pitch and hot weather condition affected his players.
Also Read: AFCON 2027Q: Eagles Were Poor Against Guinea-Bissau –Lawal
“They were more aggressive than us, they were better than us,” Chelle’s said. “Though this is not an excuse but they know their pitch, they usually play on this pitch but for us it was the first time and the pitch was very bad and the weather was very hot too. So Guinea-Bissau entered the game more motivated, more aggressive, they put more intensity and we never found a solution .
“We tried to go forward after halftime, to bring something new but after 10 minutes we stopped and I don’t know why. But this is not the end because there are lots of games to play, we have two games against Tanzania in November and we have to win both games. After that we have Guinea-Bissau in Uyo and we need to put them in the same condition we had here.”
The Malian added:”The situation is not very good but I am very confident about my team, we have four more games and anything can happen so we have to stay focus, calm, we know our strength and weaknesses and today was s bad day for us but I am still confident about my team and my players.”
By James Agberebi
22 Comments
Stop inviting players based on names but invite only inform players. Akor Adams and a lot of the players were nonsense from the first leg including the Nsor boy who scored a nice goal but aside the goal he is not a good player. You bench Fredricks throughout the qualifiers just to play nonsense defensive combination that always concede goals. You benched George that was the best in training for old man slow motion Awoniyi. Chelle gum dey your head you made me dislike you overnight. Goodbye
ERIC CHELLE SHOULD WAKE UP.
DIER DROGBA, HAKIMI, MAHREX, AUBAMEYANG,, KANOUTE NEITHER PLAY LOCAL LEAGUE IN THEIR COUNTY NOR IN AFRICA. BUT MOST TIMES THEY PLAYED ON BAD PITCH IN WHILE ON NATIONAL ASSIGNMENT AND WIN ACCOLADES FOR THEMSELVES WITHOUT COMPLAIN. IT IS NOT ONLY NIGERIA THAT HAS FOREIGN BORN PLAYERS IN NATIONAL TEAM IN AFRICA..
**PORTUGAL DIDN’T USE RONALDO AGAINST NORWAY THEY WON 2-1
** EGYPT DIDN’T USED SALAH AGAINST SOUTH SUDAN BUT THEY WON 5-0 ON ARTIFICIAL TURF PITCH.
COACH ERIC CHELLE SHOULD STOP INVITING/USING PLAYERS BASED ON EXPERIENCE (Without form/fitness), EGO, SENIORITY OR CAPTAINSHIP/LEADERSHIP.
BY NOW NDIDI(Benchwarmer), AWONIYI(Inconsistent Club Goal deciever), M.SIMON(Seniority), ONUACHU(Club highest goalscorer deceiver) DOESN’T HAVE BUSINESS IN SUPER EAGLE TEAM.
INVITE PLAYERS BASE ON AGGRESSIVENESS, QUALITY AND POTENTIAL.
ERIC CHELLE SHOULD GO AND LEARN HOW JORGEN KLOPP & ZIDANE BAN THE USE OF PHONE IN THE CAMP AND HAVE MAXIMUM CONCENTRATION WHILE COMING FOR NATIONAL ASSIGNMENT.
**ERIC CHELLE SHOULD STOP WORSHIP STARS, NAMES, EGOS OR PLAYER’S RECORDS IN SUPER EAGLE TEAM. HE SHOULD IGNORE/BENCH NEYMAR, SALAH, RONALDO WHEN IT IS NECESSARY(Adage).
You are still my fav. For the SE job but pls u need to inject young blood into this team, a blend of experience and young lad would have at least got a draw from today’s match.
We will qualify and I’m not really mad that we lost but for the scoreline bcos I already said we can’t get anything out of that match considering the state of that farm land they took the SE to.
Morocco and other serious African nation will not play in such pitch, they will protest it and force CAF to move the game to a neutral ground but our dunce FA won’t do that.
Guinea Bissau last matches on that same pitch:
Guinea Bissau 1 Burkina Faso 2
Guinea Bissau 1 Guinea 2
Guinea Bissau 1 Mozambique 2
Guinea Bissau 0 Mali 0
No excuse for Super Eagles about the pitch
You are comparing “Apples with Oranges.” At the time those countries played with Guinea-Bissau on that same pitch, there was no flooding nor was the pitch waterlogged the way it was yesterday when Super Eagles played them there, without enough time to acclimatise to the horrible pitch!
We shall see how good they are when they visit us in Uyo for the return leg!
The Bissau Brouhaha is over.
And Nigeria finds herself on the wrong end of a 3 nil thumping at the hands of an average GB team.
Yes, the Green Chickens had their feathers plucked, and they were cooked and devoured by the hungry Djurtus.
Djurtus means Wild Dog, and indeed the Chickens were no match for the Dogs. The Chickens were torn to shreds.
As a result, we’ve got some talking points. Points we swept under the carpet because we got results in the recent past, in spite of poor performances. But at this time, the can we’ve been kicking forward has finally come back to bite us hard in the tushie.
The problem of this team is structural.
A porous defense, a paper thin midfield. It’s a recipe for disaster against any well coached team.
The best formation for this group is what I like to call the “business formations”.
3-5-2 and 3-4-3.
Astute business men will make decisions that minimize risk and maximize profit potential.
That is what these formations give you in the business of football. E get why most European and South American coaches use these formations.
I make bold to say that if we fit the right players in these formations, only 2 teams in Africa are capable of beating us. CIV and Morocco.
We are just more solid defensively when we deploy 3 center backs. It may not look pretty, but in the end, we grind out results.
We simply DO NOT have the players to play a back four! I repeat, we DO NOT have the players for a back four!
Man United in the past could do it because they had RIo Ferdinand and Vidic. Liverpool could do it when they had a young Virgil Van Dijk. He’s aging now, so they have to be careful.
Arsenal could do it when they had the likes of Tony Adams and Sol Campbell.
Our greatest team, the 1994 squad, could manage because we had Uche Okechukwu and Nwanu. I still believe though that we could have won the world cup if we played 3 center backs back then.
In the 1996 squad, we could get away with a back four because we had Okechukwu and the indefatigable Taribo. Even that team could have been stronger with 3 center backs.
For this current squad, a back four is a high BP inducing experience. Have we not suffered enough? Have we not lost enough winnable games? With 3-5-2 today, we could have caged the DIurtus, blocked all their passing channels, and eventually won the game. Worst case scenario, it would be honors even. Can a Dog bite when it has been muzzled?
But with our formation today, a porous defense and weak middle, the Djurtus were able to bare their fangs, to devastating effect.
We can occasionally switch to a back four if the tactics demands it, or if we’re up against a weak opponent. But for most African sides, a weak midfield in particular is suicidal.
Play 3 center backs, 2 or 3 combative, energetic midfielders, and 2 or 3 fast, hungry, sharp forwards, and watch Nigeria take her place once again among the elites of world football.
This is not the end true but it might be the beginning of the end for you.
Stop inviting those mediocre midlfielders, otherwise the end might be closer than you think.
Am yet to actually see se in full rebuild other than what rohr handed over.
Ndidi, Awoniyi, Simon, Onyeka, Onyeamechi, Ajayi, Aina, Osayi and Akor has no business in the super eagles…. Desolve them all and bring in fresh and vibrant players that can run, mark and attack without fizzling out….
Can u confidently tell us you won’t call all this player if fit to the NT if u happen to be chelle?
You all trying to act like they aren’t our best players for now, the only player I think I will excuse from call up is AWONIYI, not sure any sane coach will not call a fit Aina, Frank, Bruno, Ndidi, Ajayi , Akor for the NT duty, that they played bad yesterday was not bcos they are nt good but mainly bcos of the state of that pitch.
I watched carefully and saw many of our passes been misplaced due to the pitch and add the ash weather to it.
ZZ & Klopp retained close to 90% of the players they inherited from their respective former coach.
Guinea Bissau last matches on that same pitch:
Guinea Bissau 1 Burkina Faso 2
Guinea Bissau 1 Guinea 2
Guinea Bissau 1 Mozambique 2
Guinea Bissau 0 Mali 0
No excuse for Super Eagles about the pitch
Super Eagles Super Disgrace Super Embarrassment
We played a boring brand of football under Peseiro we came second at the Afcon; we played a beautiful brand of football under Chelle at the Afcon, we came 3rd. We played beautifully under Eguavoen, we crashed out in the Afcon round of 16.
Many observers, me included, poured scorn and abuse at Gernot Rohr because he played a boring brand of football, despite getting results with it at the time.
Super Eagles family, Let’s face it, our geese are not swans, simple!
Our players are decent, very decent, but other teams on the continent have caught up and have even overtaken Nigeria.
Didn’t you marvel, I mean, didn’t your marvel at the way Guinea Bissau players were trading tantalising passes eloquently and with priceless precision on the pitch yesterday like the traders at the New York Stock Exchange?
See the way their strikers carved open our defence mercilessly time and time again like the Butcher of Badagry market or like Jack the Ripper on his victims in Victorian London.
Small intestines, oesophagus, gullet, limbs and vital organs of our dilapidated football architecture were strewn all over the pitch yesterday as a soundtrack to a once great African team being decapitated and ultimately laid to rest by an opposition keen to reveal to the world that, not only do this former football emperors now wear no clothes, but also that the glory days of the once-Super Eagles are no more that a fading memory in the sands of time and are been blown into oblivion spectacularly, ruthlessly.
Shame!
But fear not, my friends, for like a phoenix, the Super Eagles shall rise again.
I have no doubt about it.
But, first things first: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
We can no longer show lack of respect for oppositions on the continent.
Against Cape Verde in 2022 at home (not against Argentina away, Cape Verde o!), Gernot Rohr played a back 5: Collins and Simon were wingbacks who sandwiched a back 3 of Awaziem, Balogun and Ekong.
That wasn’t what many of us at the time, including me, call “inferiority complex”. It was shrewdly practical football grounded on 2 realities:
1) The current generation of Super Eagles players cannot be trusted to play open, vibrant, expansive brand of football. Doing that will be tantamount to entrusting your car keys to your teenage children who has access to booze.
2) Other teams on the continent now play their football with “no fear”. There are no more genuine minnows, hence you must first of all RESPECT all opponents.
Chelle’s Super Eagles, like Eguavoen’s Super Eagles v Tunisia, thought they could float like a butterfly and sting like a bee against Guinea Bissau yesterday. Hahahaha! May I never see my back without using a mirror, hahahaha!
Instead their tattered wings were clipped and crushed before being shown how to actually sting like a bee!
We brought snakes to the party, Guinea Bissau flooded the pitch with Mongoose, many, many mongoose.
Listen, Peseiro was not stupid to revert to a back 5 at the Afcon. Rohr was not stupid to play with a back 5 against lowly opposition.
They showed respect to all opponents.
The Super Eagles, this Super Eagles cannot (always) be trusted to play expansive open football.
Chelle leant that yesterday, yesterday he learnt that, the hard way.
Even Eguavoen, when he came back for the last Afcon qualifiers, he was smart to continue Peseiro’s 5-man defence which helped Eguavoen score famous wins and win Afcon qualification before Chelle took over.
Correction: The Super Eagles can play expansive open brand of football, but only sparingly and cautiously. Generally, this set of players appears to score good (consistent) outcomes with a more pragmatic, cautious , defensive brand of football long term. Short term, yes they can be open and expansive; long term, they run out of steam playing entertaining football, like Eguavoen’s Super Eagles ran out of steam after the group stages at Afcon 2022.
Is Chelle’s Super Eagles running out of steam playing vibrant open football?
Time and time again…. You had time to fix that midfield. That Iwobi, Ndidi, and Onyeka bullshit needs to be phased out……….Every African team knows that our midfield is weak and pls Switch semi Ajayi for another defender pls. You keep inviting players but not trying them out like wtf is this nonsense.
I’m still wondering: why drop the guys who gave us so much hope at the Unity Cup? That Bewene guy, alongside Frederick, should be starting in the Super Eagles’ defence. But when names like Ola Aina and Ajayi are around, perhaps the coach finds it difficult to do the needful. Sometimes, we select reputations instead of current form.
Chelle’s diamond formation also hasn’t really convinced me with the personnel available. Guinea-Bissau exploited the wings beautifully, constantly stretching and pulling our players out of position, while we kept trying to force everything through the middle. And by the time Chelle switches formation during matches, it often feels like the damage has already been done.
Another concern is the goals we concede. Chelle rarely gets clean sheets, regardless of who is in goal. His teams seem to concede whenever the opposition applies sustained pressure. How do you build a team that wants to win matches when every serious attack looks capable of producing a goal? Why not learn something from Morocco, whose relentless attacking often keeps opponents pinned back and unable to regroup?
The last time the Super Eagles had a sustained spell of defensive solidity was around the AFCON. Why has Chelle struggled to reproduce that balance?
He also needs to invite players based more on current form than reputation. This is 2026. Gone are the days when Nigeria could simply walk onto an African pitch and collect points because of the name on the shirt. The last World Cup should have taught everyone that. The rise of teams like DRC and Cape Verde has shown young African footballers that the old hierarchy is changing.
We saw another warning at the last WAFCON when the Super Falcons couldn’t even secure a playoff ticket. Africa is moving, and if Nigeria doesn’t move with it, we’ll eventually be left behind.
That makes the heavy defeat to Guinea-Bissau particularly painful. But it is not the end of the road. There is still room to improve, learn and make it. The talent is there. Now the selections, tactics and mentality have to catch up.
You are comparing “Apples with Oranges.” At the time those countries played with Guinea-Bissau on that same pitch, there was no flooding nor was the pitch waterlogged the way it was yesterday when Super Eagles played them there, without enough time to acclimatise to the horrible pitch!
We shall see how good they are when they visit us in Uyo for the return leg!
Yes the Super Eagles were not up to par yesterday, but don’t underestimate the “home advantage” the Guinea-Bissau side exploited to their own advantage yesterday.
Chelle perhaps expected yesterday’s disaster class because even Satan forbids that those players yesterday should play Russia friendly next week.
That lineup has more midfielders than attackers that had usually been our style since forever.
The tank is 28. Ndidi 29. Iwobi 30.
I thought they should have one more afcon opportunity, that is all those players that
Won silver in 2023
Won bronze last year
Should try and pursue gold next year and create afcon medal haul record for themselves.
That tiny midfield had been our fulcrum for like 30 years.
The centre can no longer hold.
I hope those guys fit Russia friendly really turn up early next month so that they can easily be called up for Nov qualifiers.
At least, now I see why Chelle called up 2 lists
Imagine Morocco reaching 5th in world rankings that Nigeria had done in 1994 (32 years ago).
They were not even in top 25 then. Senegal wasn’t even in top 50.
Now, we can’t play common football or even dominate the continent in club football.
We will be fine.
All those football age players can’t perpetually represent us.
Something will have to give way
@Sly, the Super Eagles will try to fly in thr return leg
Fun fact, Chelle is also handling our U23s……LMAOooo.
Unless CAF has changed some things, U23 qualifiers and the U23 Afcon which is the main qualifier for the Olympics, are often played outside FIFA windows.
But the man has been busy shadowing ready-made talents in Europe for the U23s who may end up not getting released by their clubs for the Olympic qualification assignment, unless, once again, CAF decides to feature the qualifiers on FIFA window-compliant dates.
With his 1-dim approach, tactical bankruptcy and rigidity, which has now become well known to every coaching tom-dick-harry on this continent, and the fact that U23 national team matches would even be played on far worse pitches than the one in Bissau, why is qualification for the 2028 Olympics and by extension, the 2030 World Cup looking like a certain impossibility now……….????
In the words of our elders, a wise cripple never dies in a foretold war.
Sycophants can bleat all they want; the truth can never be stopped from being spoken.
Someone should bookmark this page for the future.
I share the same sentiment. The bulk of his U23 players should come from the local league. Otherwise, we wont make it to the Olympics again.
Thumbs up Doctor Dare, you nailed it.
I want to encourage Ikpeme , the Acting Secretary General that delegates should be sent One or two weeks before our matches to observe the field to be use to play football. Please let not this ugly incident repeat itself. This one of the reasons we are asking for restructuring and one of the weakeness observed with the previous regimes. it occured during the World Cup qualifiers with South Africa which resulted in some players getting injured like Ola-Aina. Please I want you to leave a legacy of good administrator by the of your short tenure without criticisms. Thanks
Everywhere don blur for Nigeria football.
Is this the worst SE performance in the history of our national team? Arguably so.
We’ve never, ever had it so bad.
Even in the days when we struggled to qualify for world cups, back in the 1970s and 1980s, our national team still had that fear factor. Teams trembled when it was time to face Nigeria.
South Africa in particular were terrified of us. Anytime we met them, we would load them with goals. We were their original nightmare.
Today, even the smallest teams play us with zero fear. GB sized us up, looked us up and down, and they saw us finish.
Our players had an off day, not including Bassey and Iwobi, who although ineffective in midfield, still tried to make passes here and there, tried to make something happen. Simon and Usor came in and added some spark to the attack, but Simon as usual was way too predictable and the GB defense quickly figured him out. As for Usor he was lively, but was kept at bay. He tried to cut in to his left a few times, but the GB left back was prepared for that.
Ilenikhena came in and showed hunger and desire, but did not get the support he needed. If we were going to score yesterday, it was likely going to come from George.
Osayi! Osayi! Osayi oooooo!!!! I reserve my comment!
The biggest disappointment on the day for me was Akor.
A player I had lavished praise on in the past as part of the FEARSOME THREESOME consisting of Osimhen, Lookman and himself, the TERRIBLE TRIO who terrorized defenses at the last Afcon.
Akor produced an absolute stinker of a performance.
Was it the bad pitch? I struggle to reconcile his performance with what we saw of him at the Afcon!
It can’t be the same person! What happened? Was he sick or something?
Lookman too just wasn’t in the game. Too casual, too laid back, struggled to control the ball. Struggled to receive even simple passes! Failed to beat his marker time and time again. If you can’t beat your man, how about make a pass, and move into space to receive a pass, for where? Lookman just couldn’t get going. I would have yanked him off before the end of the first half.
Chief Nwabali, try and dive na? You just stand there dey look ball as ball dey pass you enter net? You for kuku wave the ball bye bye, see you later now.
With Nwabali, you just never know. Awesome against Egypt in the Afcon 3rd place game, fantastic against Madagascar in our penultimate game, and now this? The issue is not the 3 goals conceded, it’s how the goals were conceded. Baba no gree dive. Nwabali fall our hand yesterday.
Anyway, what has happened has happened. No need crying over spilled milk.
It’s clean up time. We need to clean up our sullied, utterly battered reputation! And the only way to do this is to completely demolish Madagascar, Tanzania and GB in our remaining group games.
We need to dish out vicious, violent spankings so bad, teams around Africa will once again hear the name Nigeria and tremble. We need to get our fear factor back!