Super Eagles head coach Éric Chelle insists his team will keep getting better following their impressive outing at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, reports Completesports.com.
The three-time champions finished their campaign with a 4-2 penalty shootout win over the Pharaohs of Egypt.
The Super Eagles earned plaudits for their impressive attacking displays in the competition.
Chelle said they will build on the experience in future.
Read Also:AFCON 2025: Egypt Displayed True Character Despite Defeat To Super Eagles — Hassan
“What we achieved did not come by chance. There was a great deal of work done with the players. Building a strong group is not easy; managing different personalities requires calm and patience, but the players responded in the best possible way,”
“The players gave everything for me, for the coaching staff, and for the country. I respect them all and am extremely proud of what they delivered.This match is not just a one-night story; it is part of a longer journey that concerns the future of this team.
“We will build on this experience, and it will be the foundation for the next phase of work.We tried different ideas, tested multiple approaches, and learned from every situation.
“Some things worked, others did not—but that is how teams develop.What matters most to me is clear: this team has character, commitment, and a strong future ahead.”
By Adeboye Amosu
13 Comments
Chelle you need to go…let our president pump money into the federation and help us go all out for Hervé Renard (lets buy him out of his contract with saudi arabia)
You have done a nice job tho but I believe getting to the final was the target set by nff either written or verbal…And you had all the human resources not just to get to the final but to also win it ….
The day you get delivered is when you’ll know that something is wrong with your thinking.
A coach that lost no match in 7 matches, conceded only 4 goals and scored 14goals. Dominating matches until a stop gap against an home team with ref as 13th man and you think sacking him makes your type wise.
That monkey spirit must leave your body before you get freedom in life and act like real human being. For now ignoring your comments and censoring it is the best.
Lol.. I have dragged this one out of his dungeon…Are you sure you are not the one that needs deliverance? Cos from the time of GENERAL ROAH you have been saying ignoring my comments is the best but its almost a decade now you are still finding my personal views irresistable….lmaol..
I am sure you must be getting some hard-on whenever you see my comments….hahahahaha
only a monkey can do what you do….only a bigger monkey thinks and write like this……
Lmao…My problem is if I reply you, csn will not publish my comment…even if they do I will just end up helping you to trend….lol…
For sure S.E must keep.getting better. We need to match words with actions for this to happen. As other countries are building we too dont hv to rest till we return to the submit of world football where we once belong . In this regards there are some players I feel hv played themselves out of Eagles and should never be called up again. We need an SE that will hv like for like replacement for every position. So the following players hv no business being in that team again wasting space.
(1) Anuachu
(2) Moses Simon
(3) Chukweze
(4) Onyedika
(5) Akor Adams .. not convinced.
There is no tIme to waste. Every one is not an SE material. We cannot be keeping players who hv refuse to grow . we need to bring in players with the capacity and mentality to perform at the highest level. It doesn’t matter the league the player is playing. A good player can be found any way. Image how Freddrick came in and dovetail with our defence as if he has been playing for years. Thats the level we need. Chelle should stay but go in thorough search for Osihmen deputy, Nididi deputy and the quality wingers. Chukweze and simon are finished. Another player that i think will fit into this chelle’s Diamond midfield is Ihenacho.. pls lets try him and see .. He is a good passer of the ball to compliment iwobi . He can play at the tip of the Diamond while lukeman pairs Osihmen in attack. For now,we are cover in defence, goal keeping and partially attack. Midfield is our problem
all good but you spoil am at the mention of Ihenacho….If you are letting Chukwueze and Onyedika go, why have Ihenacho back?
Ihenacho is a quality player. Presently the SE midfield lacks visionary passers apart from Iwobi. Against morrocco the burden was much on him . if Ihenacho is fit why bring him to play at the tip of the diamond close to the strikers, a position now occupied by lukeman. But the problem with lukeman is that he dribbles too much and unnecessarily thereby slowing down attack . so lets move lukeman forward to pair Osihmen in attack bcos that is where dribbling will be meaningful. Akor Adams cant dribble and that blunt our attack. Ihenacho is 28, still very young. Lets give him a try.
It is no flattery to say that the Super Eagles have improved massively under the tutelage of Eric Chelle.
I cannot remember the first or last time the Super Eagles navigated an entire Afcon campaign undefeated in regulation time.
I cannot even remember the first or last time the Super Eagles kept a clean sheet throughout the regulation time of the knockout stage of any Afcon.
But for the cold hands of penalties and the unambitious brand of football Morocco played for most of the 90 minutes of the semi finals, Nigeria would have been playing in today’s final.
Does Eric Chelle have areas to improve on? Does Pep Guadiola have areas to improve on? Mikel Arteta: is he flawless?
The Super Eagles’ brand of football was breathtaking – when it worked, when oppositions failed to close down our dangermen quickly, ferociously and emphatically.
When we did come across “aggressive markers” in Congo, Morocco and Egypt, our well of goals dried up like Sahara desert.
But that is football, we couldn’t score, these oppositions couldn’t score too, thanks to the sturdiness and resilience of our fullbacks, centre backs.and goalkeeper: the Super Eagles under Chelle operated under one mantra – Stop us from scoring and we will do to you likewise.
“We will build on this experience, and it will be the foundation for the next phase of work,” said Chelle to CSN.
Yes, he needs a foundation on being able to score goals against opponents hellbent on breaking the cord of supplies to the centre forwards.
We tried different ideas, tested multiple approaches, and learned from every situation.
Some things worked, others did not,” lamented Chelle.
Ideas implemented to keep clean sheets eventually worked. Approaches implemented to overcome penalty jitters worked. The situation of having an unreliable goalkeeper was effectively addressed.
But there’s more, way more to be done. That’s life, that’s football!
Solid comment Nigerians are fully behind you. But Chukwueze must be guided in future.
Yeah chell should stay thats what sensible and forward thinking people should do,keep him start planing with him ahead of d next Afcon and getting to the semi-finals of d 2030 world cup is achievable if its well planned ahead let’s borrow a leaf for football giants like Spain,to be very honest with you guys am proud of chells and this SE guys for a while now you haven’t seen the players play with so much commitment and zeal,just within the space of one year we could play these brand of football,we might not have gotten to our desired goal but with chells we wll surpass our target in d future,truth be told Ndidi is d live wire of the midfield his absence was solely missed and contributed to us not winning at regulation time the battle was won in the midfield and chells analysed d match well enough that prompted him saying he will bring in new players if he is allowed to stay trust me the coach knows what he is doing and the good thing is morroco didn’t outclass us despite their home advantage and coach stability and bad officiating even d match official were happy it ended on penalties,to cut the long story short pls NFF extend chells contract let’s plan ahead n prepare better let’s not allow what happened to us after d dismissal of GR happen to us again,coach chells and the boys we love you guys you guys are amazing heads up brothers we move,go get d job done against Egypt,one thing is sure if d morroco match was played on a neutral ground we for show them wetin fire go use rat ear do weldone guys I love you all
I hope it’s not true. But I’m hearing that some countries are already offering Chelle as much as 4 times his current salary to ditch Nigeria and come join them. Tunisia in particular seem to be very interested.
He will be getting a better working environment, better admin support, besides better pay. But he will be giving up something if he leaves Nigeria. The abundant player pool at his disposal.
How will Chelle proceed?
Our objective now surely must be to build on what this squad has achieved so far.
Many European and South American countries going to the world cup will be looking to play quality friendlies. We need these games to build team chemistry and try out new players.
Two windows each in March and June before the World cup.
Two windows each also in September and November.
Roughly, Chelle should enjoy free money this year because we hardly play consistently 2 matches per window.
Countries playing African nations go rush us jor for friendlies