Super Eagles’ Coach, Eric Chelle, has described his team’s collapse in the last 15 minutes of the game against Tunisia, on Saturday, as unusual, saying the turn out of the game gave him nightmares.
Nigeria was cruising to a 3-0 victory at the Stade de Fes with goals from Victor Osimhen, Wilfred Ndidi and Ademola Lookman before the Tunisians took over the proceedings with two quick goals.
Nigeria hung on to win the game 3-2, but many pundits questioned Chelle’s substitutions that handed over the midfield to the Carthage Eagles towards the end of the game.
Montassar Talbi headed in Tunisia’s first goal in the 74th minute before Ali Abdi scored from the spot in the 87th minute to set up an uneasy finish to the game for the Super Eagles.
The win put Nigeria through to the second round of the competition even before tomorrow’s last group game against Uganda.
In his post-game analysis, Chelle 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 was a revenge of sorts for the Super Eagles, who were eliminated from the championship in the second round by the Tunisians at the 2021 edition in Cameroon.
On the overall performance of his side, Chelle said: “Tunisia didn’t let in one goal during the World Cup qualifiers and scoring three goals against this team is for me a great game. We kept the ball so well during 70 or so minutes.”
He said the last game against Uganda tomorrow will bring back the confidence to his squad, adding: “There are positives in Tunisia’s comeback. It shows that there is still something for us to work on and something to improve. It will keep my players motivated.”
Chelle, while warding off criticisms for his side’s apparent slow finish, explained shortly after the game that the substitutions were done after empirical assessment of the team’s needs and strength, emphasising that no team can pile absolute pressure on its opponent for the entire duration of the game.
“People can say what they want, but the reality is that we deserved this win. We cannot maintain high pressure for a full 90 minutes. We did so for 75 minutes, which is why I substituted the two wingers.”
