CHAN 2024: Why we lost to Senegal — Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle

Head coach of Nigeria’s Super Eagles B, Eric Chelle, highlighted critical areas for improvement following a 1-0 defeat to Senegal in their 2024 CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) Group D opener on Tuesday.

Despite controlling possession, the home-based Eagles struggled to convert chances, allowing Senegal’s Christian Gomis to score the decisive second-half goal.

In his Tuesday post-match press conference, Chelle pointed to a lack of intensity as the key issue.

“Senegal was more aggressive than us. They put more intensity than us, and this is logical, it’s normal—they deserve this victory,” he said.

“In the second half, we gave away a goal. A little mistake cost us. This is normal because we never got into the game mentally, or maybe we were scared about something.”

Chelle stressed the need to win physical battles, stating, “We need to try to play football. We enjoy it when we play, create chances to score, keep the ball, but when we lose the ball for 20 minutes, they score. And this is football.

"We need to win games, we must be ambitious, and to do that, we need to be more aggressive. We lost every duel today, and we must do better.”

Looking ahead to matches against Sudan and Congo, Chelle called for a mental reset.

“This is the first match, and we have two games to go. We need to change our state of mind and be more aggressive on the pitch. You can’t play football if you lose every duel in the game,” he said.

Nigeria faces Sudan next on August 12, aiming to reignite their knockout stage hopes.