Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has said Tunisia’s late fightback shows there are still work to be done in his team.
The Super Eagles raced to a 3-0 lead against Tunisia with goals from Victor Osimhen, Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman.
But Tunisia got a goal back through Montassar Talbi in the 74 minutes before Ali Abdi converted a penalty on 87 minutes to set up a nervy finish.
Reflecting on the encounter Chelle, however, said there are positives to take in the clash with the Carthage Eagles.
Also Read: AFCON 2025: Super Eagles Must Improve In Closing Out Matches –Onyeka
“We still have to play a game that will bring the confidence and shows our ambitions.
“There’s positives in Tunisia’s comeback. It shows that there is still something for us to work on and something to improve. It will keep me and my players motivated.”
On how he felt in the final 15 minutes of the game when the Super Eagles were under pressure, he said:”Those final 15 or so minutes will give me nightmares. I was going a little bit crazy about what was happening because the players deserved a big game. And it was a test against a big team like Tunisia.”
The win against Tunisia means the Super Eagles have qualified for the round of 16.
Up next for them is their final group fixture against the Cranes of Uganda on Tuesday, December 30.
The Ugandans played out a 1-1 draw with fellow East African side Tanzania.
By James Agberebi in Fes, Morocco
Photo by Ganiyu Yusuf in Fes, Morocco
4 Comments
It was the best audition of Eric Chelle’s tactical credentials, it was the worst rendition of Eric Chelle’s tactical credentials.
Tunisia’s tactical technique on the night, before the 70th minute, hid Eric Chelle’s tactical shortcomings. Tunisia afforded Nigeria too much time on the ball, dropping too deep and relying on half baked counter attacks: an approach that suited Nigeria well.
You see, when Benin and Gabon gave Nigeria the freedom of the field, these opponents suffered 4 goals against.
When Congo DR and Tunisia took the fight to Nigeria, Nigeria conceded 3 goals, 2 to Tunisia, 1 to Congo.
I would have been in an unbridled, unputdowable euphoria of excitement had the match ended 3:0. It would have served 2 purposes: 1. A statement of intent of Nigeria being title contenders, 2. A statement confirming that the Super Eagles can suppress, convincingly, oppositions who play tight and compact brand of football.
Am I happy about the scoreline? Hell Yeah! Am I grateful to Coach Chelle and the boys? You betcha! Am I perplexed about the ending? Affirmative!
The match ending 3:2, rather, the manner in which the match ended 3:2 left a disgusting taste in my mouth.
Had Tunisia played the whole match – open, vicious, compact, offensively ruthless – as they did in the last 15 minutes of the match, I would have had no problem.
But Tunisia paid dearly for playing negative football and when they decided to dial up the heat, they were out of tarmac, out of time for the world to really see how well a progressively attack minded Tunisia could have troubled, even hurt Nigeria.
As for Nigeria, a very big and emphatic well done for paying Tunisia the wages of lackadaisical football with 3 fabulously crafted goal before the near capitulation in the dying embers.
I thought it was a legitimate penalty award to Tunisia; tenuous, yes, tenable, yes too. More than the legality of the decision is the face that Nigeria’s defence at started haemorrhaging at the point with little idea as to how to stop the bleeding. So, the pressure poor Osayi-Samuel was under was indicative of the flaw in our design defensively under such circumstances.
It might sound I am sounding negative, no, I remain a fan of Chelle and his brand of football and his collection of players for this Super Eagles.
To get to that next level, they need to prove that, when the going gets tough, their tactical infrastructure can help the tough get going into the abyss.
That trick, they are yet to master.
Thank you Deo!
Good response @Deo- one of the very fair and objective critics of Eric Chelle and his SE wards.
You are very spot on in your assessment: Good tactical formation and drive for the best of 70mins and then poor changes and tactical collapse in last embers of the games supervised by Chelle. It is becoming too recurring in Chelle’s games: Starting from when he was Mali’s Coach at the last Afcon (2023 Qtr finals- Ivory Coast V Mali). His game management cost Mali, making wrong substitutions late on and urging his wards to keep attacking instead of defending his lead as extra times was just 2 minutes to end.
Against Zimbabwe in Uyo WCQ Md5- he again made the wrong substitutions bringing in attackers instead of midfielder or defender to replace a tired Ndidi and possibly Ekong. That cost Nigeria the home win that Nigeria desperately needed to claw back the points deficit SA and Benin had acquired at that stage.
Against Ghana in June 2025 in the Unity Cup, Nigeria appeared to be cruising with a 2 goals lead and then strangely he brings in Iheanacho and I think Musa instead of a Defensive midfielder to halt Ghana’s uptake in 2nd half and ended up conceding a goal and putting his defence under huge pressure for the remainder of the tie; and then the unpardonable removal of Akor who was tormenting the Tunisian defenders no end; and then Onyeka who held the midfield tight that the Tunisians ceded that area to SE when he was in the game.
If Onyeka was tired then you expect another Defensive midfielder replacement when you are leading 3-0: Onyedika, Tochukwu Nnadi, Akinsamiro and Usman Mohammed were all on the Bench sitting idly, so why bring another Attacker who cannot defend in the mold of Chidera Ejuke?
It is becoming too recurrent and I cannot cut Chelle some slack on this obvious deficiency in his managerial skills set! It was pardonable in his Zimbabwe fiasco as he was then new to his players then but he is now been with boys for about a full year in charge and such error of judgement cannot be condoned at this stage.
My advice to Chelle, sit Osimhen down and let him know he is critical to 9ja success incase he has 4gotten, he needs to curtail his outbursts as dat will cause the team big time. If he gets anoda yellow card he will miss d round of 16 (in case Chelle elects to play him which i will advice strongly against, i will rather like to see a completely different team with same formation like he did today) . I will also advice Chelle to talk some sense to Nwabali to cuttail his erratic behaviors, he keeps commiting errors that are detrimental to the team. Chelle also needs to go abreast himself with the rules on handballs, the fact dat he said he doesn’t know the rules is a little alarming to be honest (i understand no man is an island wen it comes to knwledge dats why he has his team of knowledgeable pipo around him but there are certain rules u as a coach must know). We are getting to d stage were fine details win u games, practicing penalties should be a strategic advantage for us and should be prioritized. Chelle and his coaching crew should have a dossier of all tge teams at diz afcon and a detail of all the platers and how tgey take penalties (humans are a creature of habit, if as a player, u have played 60-80% of ur penalties to d right, then there is a huge probability dat ur next oenalty will go to ur right. Alsopychologically if in a game, u have 2 penalties and its same person dat will be playing it, if he plays d 1st to the left, psychologically the 2nd will most likely be to d right). Chelle should also speak to Osayi samuel and the team regarding always putting dia hands by d side wen competing for aerial balls in d box (its common sense but many teams still pay for diz in real match situations). Man to man marking inbthe box to deal with aerial balls from set pieces should be looked at instead of zonal marking (9ja has no business letting anyteam beat us to 1st balls. Side by side man marking should be adopted not us standing behind an opponent thereby giving dat opponent a higher chance to d 1st ball). Just some of my tots