Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle believed his team can still earn a berth at the 2026 FIFA World Cup despite despite failing to Bafana Bafana of South Africa on Tuesday, reports Completesports.com.
Chelle’s side battled to a 1-1 draw with South Africa at the Toyota Stadium, Bloemfontein on Tuesday night.
The result put a dent on Nigeria’s chances of securing a place at the global soccer fiesta.
The Super Eagles remain in third position in Group C with 11 points from eight games, six points behind leaders South Africa.
Read Also:2026 WCQ: Bafana Bafana Matched Super Eagles’ Power — Broos
Chelle declared that they won’t give up in their fight to qualify for the World Cup.
“My players are professionals and I know they will still want to win the remaining two games,” Chelle said after the game.
“A lot can happen over the next one month. But before that, we will have to analyse our performance tonight, which will not be easy.”
The Super Eagles will be away to Lesotho when the qualifiers resume in September.
They will host Squirrels of Benin Republic in their final game in the qualifiers same month.
By Adeboye Amosu
26 Comments
All the guys that put us in this messed up situation
Nff
Peseiro
Uzoho
Finidi
Awoniyi
Onuachu
Boniface
Ekong den killed the hope with consistent mistakes
In as much as i blame the NFF for appointing Finidi without any experience at such critical stage i will also not fail to blame FiFA for being an accomplice for the bad pitch approve by CAF for world cup matches. Its a very big shame. Im sure Nigeria will have beaten south Africa if the pitch was Good. Concerning Ekong … We love him for his dedication but his defence errors are way too numerous and consistent. Maybe He will have to retire from the team for the good of 400million Nigerians. Honestly we dont need Ekong on the pitch again no matter the system. Like i said the fans love him. If another player commits his kind of errors he will be crucified. Then on Iwobi i will said the Coach should fine a way of using him only when we play less physical sides. Our midfield needs revamping . Im.beginning to see why big teams in England and top 5 league have refuse to sign Ndidi. To cut a long strory short handlers of SE needs to start the search for a midfielder in the mould of Sunday Oliseh who can shoot from outside and alway hv a knack for giving defense splitting passes. Ndidi lacks thses qualitied. I dont know wether Rapheal can step up and give us that. With teams now playing defensive against SE because of world class attacking threat , we need midfielders that can score or create chances like sunday Oliseh. Only Dele Bashuruim is showing those traits in the present setup. On the Coach Eric chelle , his contract should be renew whether we qualify or not. Thanks@all
Honestly, like you said, we love Ekong, but it’s time he, along with Ndidi and Simon, focus on club football or start playing 5 – 10-minute cameo roles towards the tail end of matches.
I’ve always seen Ndidi as bang average and cos of his supposed “experience”, the coach keeps benching midfielders with bullet shots like Onyedika. These 3 guys are just too slow with reactions and second balls. Simon is just one-dimensional and predictable as always.
As for Ndidi, he was beaten almost every time to the second ball. The only old timer who’s never scored. Even Onyedika and Calvin Bassey have scored less than 2 years in the team.
The other thing is, while I like Chelle (he’s smart and to some extent tactical), the fact is, he’s still inexperienced. Coaches in their 60s to 80s, like Broos, Rohr, Adel Amrocuhe, and even Kwesi Appiah of Sudan, are old foxes. They’ve been in this profession for donkey years and learnt all the tricks in the world, including from their own past coaching mistakes. We need an old fox. We probably shouldn’t have done away with Rohr. But we need an old fox like Broos.
For example, it was clear Broos told his players to go very physical with Nigeria as that has always been an advantage for us, but the SA players were overdoing it while the coach strangely looked away. If this were a FIFA match with all the VARs and whatnots, they would have earned several bookings and a possible red card yesterday.
Summary: Ndidi and Ekong should give way to Onyedika and Frederick in the starting 11, and Simon should start from the bench. He’s more effective that way. They should be slowly eased out of the SE like was done to Ahmed Musa.
Ndidi shd give way for a better otedola or what’s ur reason for that? Ndidi shd give way for a younger onyedika or bcos onyedika ndidi have been in SE way too long before onyedika? Bcos I didn’t see why ndidi shd give way to onyedika that isn’t better, if your reason is base on age, I’m not sure ndidi senior onyedika on a norm, so in a nutshell both of them shd get out for a more dedicated and rugged midfielder.
James or watin?
Yuh are a very very mumu guy! How did Awoniyi put yuh in your mess up situation?
Ngwannu told us how Awoniyi speciflically put yur mumu yaish in a mess. fullish goat!
What has any of dis got to do wit Awo?? Yuh be wereey!
It’s time to focus on the 2025 Afcon and qualification for the 2030 World Cup. Personally, I think the ship of qualifying for next year’s historic mundial in the Americas has since sailed, leaving us behind to lick our wounds.
I will go out on a limb here to say Coach Chelle has done pretty well. Yes, his faults are as glaringly obvious as pimples on the face of a teenager, he does have redeeming qualities.
Raw emotions, uncontrollable rage, and the unbearable pain of, yet again, missing out on a World Cup that we have no business missing out on, aside, Chelle has kept his own side of the bargain – to an extent.
Think about it, his pattern in these qualifiers has been 1 win, 1 draw in each in each window. Now, had the bufoons in NFF employed him when they slapped Finidi on us, we would be sitting comfortably on 14 points now, close enough to still catch South Africa, close enough to still qualify as one of the best placed 2nd positioned team. If we had started the entire campaign with Chelle, based on this model, we would be 16 points now.
This model will be no consolation to many fans who will point to Chelle’s dodgy formation, porous tactics, abysmal team selection and abject in-game management (particularly in the dying embers of games), as enough justification to feed the Malian tactician to the wolves of the Serengeti. And, honestly, I won’t blame these fans.
But who do I blame? Our good old administrators at the NFF; oh yes indeed!
It’s become a tired trope, always pointing the fingers of blame at the NFF, whereas so many other factors contribute to this predicament – again, another line of argument that I am in full alignment.
However, 2 things can be true at the same time.
It is no secret; Eguavoen, acting on behalf of the NFF, came out to say he mandated Jose Peseiro to “play in a way that will make the Super Eagles score many goals”. Due to this interference, Peseiro could only muster 2 points for the World Cup qualifiers, setting us back in a manner we were never able to recover from.
As if our situation was dire enough, somebody employed a wet-behind-the-ears coaching virgin of international football to rescue the sinking ship! A plan is about to crash, and you send a Danfo driver to recover the situation! Great move NFF, great move! We all saw how that turned out.
Now they brought in Chelle, who has zero experience of turning a bad situation around, to come and turn this bad situation around; are you f**king kidding me?
Thank you, NFF, thank you very much!
Anyways, yesterday’s match was physical, brutal, and chaotic as neither team wanted to lose. Clearly, South Africa carved out the neatest, most clear-cut scoring opportunities, but all of our defence line held firm, all but one, Mr Ekong himself.
Why Chelle will bow to whatever pressure to start Ekong in such an encounter will forever be beyond me. For me, the brightest area in our game yesterday was the defence, heck, the only goal we scored was from a centre defender. Osayi-Samuel and Fredricks, particularly, were run ragged, yet they held firm. Bassey will be caught off guard but his recovery rate was from another planet!
The midfield collapsed after Ndidi’s departure. Arokodare caused S/A a lot of problems, Dessers was clueless as a lone centre forward, Simon’s tried and tired tricks failed to impress, Bashiru must be highly commended for the cross for the goal, Iwobi was so-so, Lookman looked slightly lost at times, and Nwabili played it safe and was alert.
Chukwueze was effectively curtailed, Uche huffed, puffed and scuffed a shot embarrinsingly while Chelle’s substitions and directions from the last 25 minutes showed a coach out of his depths, out of ideas, out of rope, and in the eyes of many Super Eagles fans, totally out of time – he should go (but who will replace him is my question)
For me, he should stay.
@Deo thank you for Finally seeing Ndidi the rOck of Jabrulta!!… You are right in your assesment. Nigeria Messed up by starting Dessers and Ekong. I mean Ekong came and gave CHelle what Chelle wanted a disaster because after the Zim game when Ekong’s mess up cost us the equaliser he should never have started another game for SE again in these qualifiers especially after his replacement did so well against Rwanda on Saturday!!
In as much as i blame the NFF for appointing Finidi without any experience at such critical stage i will also not fail to blame FiFA for being an accomplice for the bad pitch approve by CAF for world cup matches. Its a very big shame. Im sure Nigeria will have beaten south Africa if the pitch was Good. Concerning Ekong … We love him for his dedication but his defence errors are way too numerous and consistent. Maybe He will have to retire from the team for the good of 400million Nigerians. Honestly we dont need Ekong on the pitch again no matter the system. Like i said the fans love him. If another player commits his kind of errors he will be crucified. Then on Iwobi i will say the Coach should fine a way of using him only when we play less physical sides. Our midfield needs revamping . Im beginning to see why big teams in England and top 5 league have refused to sign Ndidi. To cut a long strory short handlers of SE needs to start the search for a midfielder in the mould of Sunday Oliseh who can shoot from outside and also hv a knack for giving defense splitting passes. Ndidi lacks thses qualities.I dont know wether Rapheal can step up and give us that. With teams now playing defensive against SE because of world class attacking threat , we need midfielders that can score or create chances like sunday Oliseh. Only Dele Bashuruim is showing those traits in the present setup. On the Coach Eric chelle , his contract should be renew whether we qualify or not. I feel if giving enough time he can fix the SE and give us a world class team play beautiful attacking football. Thanks@all
Dessers is not cut for African football I’m sorry and I was one of his biggest supporter. Ekong really needs to go abeg 2 blunders in 2 world cup qualifiers has cost us 4 points. If those 4 points were added to what we have we will be talking about 15 points……Benin will be tie with SA if SA is docked 3 points lol Rohr might just sneek in.
Ive seen enough of Eric to know he’s got nothing to offer us. Please and please, we shouldn’t make that mistake of wasting further time retaining him. Come October, end of contract, thank you, Eric, it was nice doing business with you. We cant keep a coach who always manages to single handedly throw away games. He did it with Mali at the last AFCON and i thougth it was a once off, but after watching the SE, it will only meeting another tactically astute coach for us to bite the dust as often as that happens.
The NFF I know cannot get us a quality foreign coach before December. Getting a good coach is like studying quantum physics in continuum mechanics terminology and FORTRAN 77 coding format. It takes up to 1 year for them to hire permanent gaffers for the SE. So what do we do? Please and please, someone should prevail on whoever it may concern to get Manu Garba to come and manage this team in the interim till after the next AFCON while also being our permanent U23s coach, so that preparations for the next Olympic Games and by extension the rebuilding of the SE for the 2030 World Cup can start in earnest. I still don’t understand why we are sleeping on that man. The man plays the best brand of football any Nigerian team has played in years, while guaranteeing goals and still getting decent results.
Its becoming very nauseating watching the SE these days play horrible football, yet struggle to get either goals, results or both.
For me he should definitely STAY nice analysis
Samson siasia needs to come back, infact let him come and take us to afcon.
It will be more honourable if we can win afcon with him than going to world cup.
Ad for some of you guys complaining of bad pitch, I ask agai are you guys expecting SA to just loose that match like that.
They know we have our boys playing in Europe and use to good pitch, they will never take us to where our strength lies.
Siasia in and all these set of players should leave ageles alone, ekong, indidi, iwobi, Simon, chukwueze, these set has been with eg for far too long, obviously nothing good can ever come of them.
If these of players make it to afcon go and write it down will manage to come of group stage and get eliminated at the knockout stage.
@Wike you see its this kind of commenting thats took Nigeria down and the same mindset will keep us there if you sentimental people don’t stop this rubbish.. That arrandt rubbish Siasia who??. Look guy if. you don’t watch ball don’t talk or if you don’t understand the game don’t tlk.. This Coach chelle if given the job earlier instead of NFF dancing with hiring a coach Chelle would have qualified this team. SIASIA Rubbish My friend Go and sit down jare!!!!..
Is like you did not see Nigeria dominate South africa yesterday
Also any sane person who watched the game should have seen how the teams performance dropped once Ndidi came off. He was basically the linch pin enforcer in that midfield. @Wike Do you watch ball????
ERIC CHELLE MUST TAKE SUPER EAGLES TO AFCON HE DESERVES IT.. WON Unity Cup, Drew with Russia without Osimhen or Lookman, and did well in trying to rescue Nigeria’s faint hopes of WC that were destroyed by Findi and Eguavoen
You guys dnt get it, this team problem is just 15% coach, the bulk of it lies on the players dedication and commitment, just one tackle osimhen, aina and ndidi out, Mokoena was stretched out but dude returned bcos I wanted to help his nation, but our boys be like we can’t come and kill ourself and return to our club with injury. Not gonna blame them though but the fact remains they all lack commitment, that’s the area I disagreed with @Dre and other guys here with the believe that Rohr would qualify us, the problem aren’t coach but the players.
Hahahaha…….So if our players sustain injuries, they should continue the game limping on the pitch….that is commitment to you. Please, where and when did you see Mokoena injured in yesterday’s game….?? The lad fell on top of Uche, rolled on the floor like a rock in a landslide to waste time, took eternity to be stretched off and returned immediately after he was wheeled out, and you compare that to players who actually suffered real damage to their ankle ligaments…..????
I find it very funny that commitment left the SE immediately Rohr left…….LMAOOoo. There must have been something he was doing right with almost the same set of players.
Mr Rohr please return the commitment of our players you took away with you to Benin republic o, biko. The passion with which your Benin players play is suspicious….it resembles the Nigerian passion…..LMAOooo
You seem to forget that earning the commitment and loyalty of players is the first duty of any coach. Ever heard of the phrase “we play for the coach” before….???
Give these same “non-committed players” to a Rohr or Broos and see them work wonders with them.
Young man, why are you sounding his way? Instead of us to chase away the NFF. but you dragging Oga Rohr back to the Super Eagles? Hmmm. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
@Dr.Drey.Dr. Drey, in fact, you read my mind and coughed out the exactly what was on it. I think I agree with you. The day Rohr left Nigeria, he went to the houses of all the SE players, collected the dedication and commitment he gave to each of them, put it in his travel bag and as soon as he got to Benin Republic, he UNPACKED, brought out COMMITMENT and gifted to his new players. I suggest that our NFF and the baby coaches they appoint should go and ask Rohr the market where he bought COMMITMENT and buy their own from there.. I am shocked that some people even at this point have not seen the glaring error in sacking Rohr. A very Ordinary Benin Republic is bossing Nigeria in same group. It is a shame.
@Femi and Dr Drey, At Dr Drey you have come again with your Mumu Rohr Matter.. Look if you claim. to know ball as much as you do, why are you people faulting Chelle?? this coach did we with what he was left to do Save face and try dig a team out of a hole they were put there by NFF, Ex Indigineous coaches and Pesireo’s Defend for life tactics. Chelle has them playing like a team again and dominating SA in SA something Pesiero could not do on a neutral ground. This Man Chelle WON the Unity Cup in London after only taking charge of the team a few weeks prior.
Chelle’s Problem was heeding to Fans Pressure and NFF by introducing Ekong for SA especially after Ekong was the reason Zimbabwe Equalised in our previous qualifications before this international Window..
You People should Leave Chelle Alone Nigeria looked Dangerous against SA yesterday something that has not been the case since WC qualifiers 2017 when Rohr was incharge before Rohr started fading after AFCON 2019..
LEave Eric Chelle alone HE MUST TAKE SUPER EAGLES TO AFCON LET US NOT CHASE A MAN AWAY WHO HAS DONE WHAT HE WAS ASKED TO DO GIVE THIS TEAM SOME SEMBLANCE OF AN IDENTITY THEY NOW HAVE THAT AND YOU PeoPLE WANT US TO SACK HIM AND TAKE US BACK EVEN FURTHER THAN WERE WE ARE.
DIRECT YOUR ANGER TO NFF, FINDI AND CO!!!!!
@Dr. Drey;
As much as I have not also been impressed with Chelle but something is becoming very glaring here as it concerns our SE.
Perhaps may be the Coaches are not the only issue here, what about if we X-ray our player quality and stop living in the illusion of we got “stars”, we got talents, we got quality. As far I as I am concerned these bunch of players are just bang average in talent and quality and that is the fundamental issue here. See the NFF or NFA as it was called back then has not changed, they have always been incompetent, corrupt, unorganized, unprofessional and delusional. But what has carried us in those eras (80s, 90s and and early in the millennium) has been quality talents and player passion and commitment.
Another pain point right now is that the talent pipeline has dried up and we don’t have any young prospect/wonder kiddo coming through the ranks, reason why some players are still sitting pretty in the SE bcos where are the alternatives. Perfect examples are Bruno Onyemeachi who cannot make a pass to save his life (9 of 10 crosses he makes are wayward) but bcos we no get alternatives, he keeps getting called up. Check out progressive and achieving teams Spain, Morocco, Senegal (already blooding young talents and integrating them gradually) but where are the young talents that we can introduce, non existent.
Lastly, one of the major issues of that team is the lack of creativity and a ball carrier, a stabilizer, not necessarily an “Okocha” but players in the mould of prime Etebo, Mikel which if not solved, even if we bring Pep, Anne Slot, Ancelloti etc, the team will still struggle to create chances.
I rest am for here
Shebi Benin republic that is 2nd in our group has world class players. South Africa who are topping the group with their homebased players also have balon dor winners in thr sqaud.
Continue avoiding the glaring truth ehn. When you are ready to have serious discussions let us know.
A team that has the current and immediate past AFOTY, the best player in Belgium, the rookie of the year in germany, the players of the season of fulham and so on cannot defeat teams like Benin, Lesotho, Rwanda and Zimbabwe and you say it’s not coaching…….LMAOoo…..no problem.
These players weren’t even this mature when Rohr was breezing past qualification assignments barely 4 yrs ago. This bang average players are current AFCON vice champions o.
Once again, when you are ready to face the truth head on, kindly let us know.
I still believe we can qualify for the World Cup.
Rwanda and Benin can get the job done for Nigeria and Super much win their two remaining matches, but can Super Eagles score many goals in these two matches in October? Hmmm. Fingers crossed kę.
It is not over until the last match of the World Cup.
If our dream team that qualified for the Sydney 2000 Olympics needed 4 goals and must not concede a single goal, and made it to the tournament in 2000, while nobody believed it could be possible, like many Nigerians are doing now. But impossible is nothing kę. Hope day ooo my people. The chances may be very slim, but let’s keep pushing until the last game of the World Cup qualifiers.
Who should we blame for this shambolic disgrace? Of course, NFF A.K.A Ajewomasan.
NFF must step down. We don’t need their service anymore. Ire o. God bless Nigeria!!!
E be like say you get malaria…..very strong one
Lol. What if South Africa load Zimbabwe 7 nil in the next match assuming their final match against Rwanda will be tougher?
Even if 3 points were deducted from them, that’s still 6 points again with even bigger goal difference.
That’s also assuming we can play Lesotho on the same pitch we flunked the game against South Africa because that’s Lesotho “home ground”.
What makes you think South Africa will “maintain” that pitch for us again?
Oga, the ship has sailed to oblivion.
Let everyone who knows 2030 world cup is not feasible after the next afcon reject future call-ups, especially those with football age.
We’ve been crying for creativity in our centre as well as hungry players who know their market value increases with the success of the national team, not serial world cup qualifiers failures.
Add 4 years to the current age of our players (that’s year 2029).
Anyone who’s no gonna be useful for 2030 qualification should get out after afcon.
No miracle is happening this time around.
Let’s lick our wound.
Thankfully, there are 2 more afcons to gel a new team and not “play names”
Nigeria has failed to qualify for the last WC with an Amaju Pinnick led NFF and is almost certain to miss the next WC with an Amaju influenced NFF. Amaju castigated the equal best coach Nigeria has had, Stephen Keshi, who won Afcon and qualified for 2nd round of a WC tournament; just like Westerhoff. Rohr and Peseiro didn’t do as well. No Afcon. And the NFF interfered inthe matches against Ghana especially at Abuja where Nigeria couldn’t outscore an inferior Ghana side.
This time, Peseiro was poor with two draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe in first two matches. Amaju forced Finidi on us even after the senior players rejected him; the result being a draw aagainst SA and a loss to Benin Republic. Chelle is ok but no better than our Nigerian coaches. Another player’s error cost us the 2 points against a weak Zimbabwe.
What now? Change a non performing MF. Ndidi, Iwobi and Simon are now too long in the tooth with little to show since 2022. That team that didn’t qualify should have been changed.
NFF should not be re-elected.
Local league and clubs need restructuring. When last did Nigeria do well at continental club or CHAN tournaments? Remo stars is a good example of way to proceed. The governments and private sector institutions should move in and a football strategy needs to be developed and start to be implemented.
Morocco is co-hosting 2030 world cup, so they have automatically qualified for that.
Meanwhile, they are currently in imperious form. Isn’t that what progressive nations do?
Have set targets and systematically work them out?
We don’t even have infrastructure to host events and so “bypass” qualification stage since we are sliding towards Djibouti FIFA world rankings because of man made factors.
We don’t even have patriotism also.
We can’t even convince foreign born talents to lust after us.
We can’t groom quality home grown talents.
We are now also rans in wafu B (emphasis is on the B because we would have perhaps been extinct if it was combined with “A”) competitions, let alone continental competitions both clubs and country.
At least, the women are a semblance of bundle of joy (who knows, maybe because they are less paid at all levels so they might be playing for pride more).
Our football is hamstrung and reaping what we have down can’t be any truer