Egypt defeated Nigeria’s Super Eagles 2-1 in a pre-2025 Africa Cup of Nations friendly at the Cairo International Stadium on Tuesday night,reports Completesports.com.
The hosts dominated the opening exchanges, and went in front through Mahmoud Saber in the 28th minute.
Saber slotted the ball home from inside box following a cross from the right.
The Super Eagles fought back with centre-back Chidozie Awaziem restoring parity in first half stoppage time.
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Awaziem nodded home Zaidu Sanusi’s free kick from close range.
The two coaches made a couple of changes after the break.
Egypt scored the winning through Mostafa Mohammed seven minutes after the break.
The Super Eagles will now shift attention to their first game at AFCON 2025 against Taifa Stars of Tanzania next week Tuesday.
Eric Chelle’s side will travel to Fez, Morocco on Thursday for the competition.
By Adeboye Amosu
23 Comments
If the coach made a couple of changes, it means he made two changes.
DiMasta lol, leave dem make dem dey play lmaoo, dem no kuku sabi at all.
Both goals Expecially the second goal are saveable but overall a good performance from the boys.
I will give Chelle my left arm the day he leads the SE to defeat a team ranked higher on the FIFA ladder……..LMAOoooo
Nigerians should not expect more than 2 wins in Morocco – Against Tanzania and Uganda (teams ranked) way below us – and no more.
I don’t see us going beyond R16, should we meet any team ranked close to or above us.
Brace guys……..Brace…!!!
Did you watched the game?
In my opinion the super eagles performance was ok.
The second goal scored against us was purely offside.
We had a clear penalty against Egypt. Dessre was fowled in the box. The centre referee overlooked it.
To me it’s just a warm up.
Though I don’t have hope in this super eagles. However, I just objectively said my opinion about the match
Dr Drey well sported there. Siasia is way way ahead of this Chelle of a guy. Seems he has no attacking tactics on breaking oppositions defence and winning games.
NO CREDIBLE ATTACKING MIDFIELDER in that team.
All we are saying, NO MORE BACK PASS.
ALL WE ARE SAYING, NO MORE BACK PASS.
THESE boys are disgracing our football.
@Drey….In as much our Osimhen is fit, Afcon final is assured. I will come back to remind/resurrect this thread come 18th January.
To be honest, Chelle now looks completely lost. I actually don’t see us getting past the group stages and I am not “hating” as they say now. First, he plays the players out of positions and secondly, he tries tactics that the players cannot execute. We are going into a major tournament with a goal keeping crisis (surprisingly, he could not convince Okoye to come) and wing backs crisis (Zaidu, Bruno, and Osayi are off). I don’t about Alebiosu but I can bet Chelle will never prefer him over Osayi at RB. At the midfield, we have a huge problem. Onyedika did not play to much hype as I hope, maybe from fatigue but with some few caching here and there, I think Dele can play as 10 and maybe Iwobi as 8 and then Frank as 4. I hope this works. Our front three will still remain Lookman-Osimhen-Chukwueze. Going far in the tournament depends on how much the players can play fo each other as they did at the last AFCON but I don’t see that happening. If Chelle does not get his head right, he will be out of a job by January 2026.
You’re even optimistic. I don’t think we’ll win any game in the AFCON. We’ll draw the 3 group games.
Eric Chelle is using Super Eagles job to learn coaching… dude played as a defender in his heydays but cant till now, help us avoid conceding goals. the fact that our midfiled setup is still problematic after almost ten games in charge tells me Chelle is not up to his onions… he does not setup in other any other way than 4-4-2… how about 3-4-3 or 3-5-2? We cannot afford being dominated in midfield by teams in AFCON!
True. I really like the guy as a human being, but he’s clearly not the one to make Nigeria climb higher in rankings or improve reputation, but again, you can’t blame him, I don’t. Who here would turn down a fairly good and high ranking job regardless of how clueless and hopeless the employers are? It’s not his problem, as far as he is concerned, he is getting paid money(or is legally owed it at least), and his CV will be looking much rosier whatever the case after all this.
Like I said before, I say it again, blame the NFF.
But you were all excited about Chelle’s performances until he lost to DR Congo suddenly he has become such a bad coach wow!!
This is true, @PajamaJimmyJam.
Could someone please explain to me while a team with ball possession close to the opponent’s 18 yards box , rather than pushing offensive always retrieve back to his goal keeper. This have been the recent pattern of the SE. Then Chan Eagles did the same thing by CAF nations league. Today no shot on goal from the SE. how could such team progress. Now, they are trying to go to World cup through the back door. Hope Fifa would never make way for such move against Congo DR.
Egypt have many of their players playing at home majorly from two clubs Al Ahly and Zamalek.You should expect better chemistry against a team that have 100% foreign base.Another advantage Egypt had was playing at home with a referee and officials from Egypt biased in officiating,that was how difficult it was for the super eagles that hardly had a full training prior to the game with many of the players playing for the very first time.
It was just a practice match.
The team will build on this friendly,hopefully we should be ready before our first game against Tanzania.
Obviously some people are desperate for the team to fail to prove a point.They are aware of everything I wrote on this post but would rather jump to destroy the coach at every little opportunity,a coach that almost qualified us for the intercontinental playoffs.
Majority of us were marvelled by his coaching prowess not until we lost by penalties against DR.Congo suddenly he’s a bad coach!Na wao!
Comments are slowing in numbers these days!Normally,it’ll be a choker on here,no thanks to Super eagles failure to qualify for the world cup.
The disappointment is so much to such an extend that a lot of fans are now giving up on the team.
How the mighty have fallen!It’s such a shame…
Meanwhile,the AFCON is the real test for the gaffer.His technical qualities,awareness will be put to test as we square up against teams lowly ranked as well ones ranked higher than the Super eagles.
There’s no better platform to test Chelle’s technical know how.
After the tournament we should be in a good position to judge him not until them.
Furthermore I could only see highlights of the friendlies between the super eagles and Pharoahs of Egypt.The super eagles have hardly had a full training with new arrivals in the team so for this reason will cut them some slack.In addition,the second goal against the super eagles was offside.If VAR was in use the goal would have ruled out,VAR aims to ensure fairness by correcting factual errors.And for Chelle not able to beat any team ranked above the super eagles,well he’s yet to play against one,I think Russia,maybe but even that finished in a draw.We shall see about that,we do hope he proves you wrong just like you ate your words,embarrassed as Madugu guided the super falcons to a glorious journey in Morocco.Incidentally,Morrocco is hosting the male version do hope you’re humiliated and eat a humble delicious pie from Morocco!
Good-Luck Super eagles!
I watched the game even though with.Arab commentary and I will give the team 7/10, the second goal is pure osagie fault.
I will pair ogbu with bassey, he is a replica of Benjamin in sone way, desser for me is still not playing anything, onuachu self played trash all through, I would have ask Chelle to start osimhen from the bench at least in our first match for reporting late to camp but who will play , Paulo to me is zero even though Chelle tried to build his confidence by allowing him to finish the game.
Very fair and objective assessment of the SE V Pharaohs of Egypt friendly away in the Pharaohs’ den, @Greenturf! Although I too did not watch the match but a few fair-minded guys who did say the Performance was good, considering that the newbies and indeed the entire team had hardly trained together before the “rushed” friendly- even when the result was not.
I suspect Chelle was trying to experiment with what is available to him in that friendly, the real test will be at the Afcon where atleast 6 of the SE Starters in the Egypt game, will almost be on the Bench at best. An Eguavoen tutored SE did beat the same Egyptians at their last competitive meeting in 2022 ( Afcon 2021 group match) and topped their group, even without Osimhen in the squad.
Time is not in Eric Chelle’s side to experiment and get a perfect blend of the team before Afcon proper and I fear might panic into playing his old
reliables In order to achieve results to save his job- but for me building a future, competitive team with fit and agile midfielders and wingers should be the concern. I just can’t understand why the Onuachu’s, Cyril Dessers in their 30s, and unfit for African football, are still being invited to Super Eagles for a competitive Afcon tournament.
My observation is that the players under Eric Chelle still play the same style:
Close look at our eagles play, you will observe that opponents have studied us and know the right button to pin us down, we are always slow to get to the ball, our opponents often get to the ball first hence force us to run around aimlessly on the pitch DRC and pharaoh of Egypt on my mind.
Our opponents take advantage of openings and uncoordinated three-man backline we often apply, using counter attacks knowing that we are slow.
Opponents have observed that super eagles don’t tight- Mark opponents cuz they are too offensive conscious hence it’s always easy to be beaten through counter attack having realized that our players don’t tick when they are tight -marked.
If we get easily dis oriented when close marked, we are forced to play like secondary boys.
It’s also clear we don’t have good dead balls or set-piece takers pls forget about lookman and Simon they are ordinary in eagles shirt and predictable.
Now the new trend of tossing ball back and forth with Stanley at the back has become glaring approach to our opponents and knowing that our goalkeeper is vulnerable to pressure they will be waiting for them in Morocco.
Finally, I love the new intakes in the team, they are all good as our over-hyped first teamers no different and let not be unnecessarily sentimental some of them even show more drive than our “world-class” players therefore let no one be alarmed if Chelle begins to give these new players more playing time than the players we are used to.
On the final note we saw how players from their local leagues played in the last AFCON and even measured up to the so called professionals, let us begin to have a different mindset from now that anybody who is hungrier to play can replace these our players after all world cup displays are eye openers to us Nigerians today.
The only player I can worry about if benched in the super eagles is Victor Osimhen, others abeg o, dem dey play for naija with ‘wisdom’
As for Me I will be following Christantus Uche’s Plight in Crystal Palace as he regains form, Even at that the form he has now and as he found his feet in Palace would have been more useful to Super Eagles than that Israili Second Division Usman Muhammed. Anyway Eric Chelle anyway you make your bed you will lie on it, those Same NFF who forced your hand to include a 31 year old Israili second division Player will distance themselves from you if Super Eagles fail in AFCON. And you will only have yourself to blame because you did not speak up!!!!!. Also Gift Orban would have been more useful than that heavy legs Moses Simon!
ALL WE ARE SAYING, NO MORE BACKPASSES
ALL WE ARE SAYING, NO MORE BACKPASS
ALL WE ARE SAYING, NO MORE BACKPASS
I think the best formation for the eagles now is 352 or 532. The team midfield and defense set is the weak link. So why no choke it , we have fast attackers, osimen is their for the set peaces. They should adopt this formation if they want to achieve something at AFCON
Nigeria will do well.