Eric Chelle concedes Senegal deserved to beat Nigeria in CHAN opener

Nigeria head coach Eric Chelle has conceded defeat following their 1-0 outcome against Senegal in their TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) Group D opener at Amaan Stadium on Tuesday.

Christian Gomis’ second-half strike was enough to separate the West African giants in a match where both sides created chances but struggled with composure in the final third.

“I think Senegal deserve this victory, because we just played 20 minutes in the second half, and during the first half, I never recognised my team, so Senegal was more aggressive than us, they put more intensity than us, so for me, they deserved the victory more than us,” Chelle said after the game.

“In the second half we gave away the goal, two little mistakes, this is normal, because we never got into this game, maybe mentally, maybe we were scared about something, but we need to try and play football, we only enjoyed 20 minutes when we played football, we created chances but failed to score.

“We kept the ball for 20 minutes but to be ambitious, we need to be more aggressive, we must fight for every ball, for the second ball. In the first half, we lost every ball, okay, this is our first match, we still have two more matches to go, but we need to change our state of mind.”

Asked what Nigeria must change ahead of their second fixture against Sudan, the Malian coach said: “We need to change our state of mind, we need to be more aggressive on the pitch, we can’t play football if we lose every ball in the game, we only need to be more aggressive offensively, and more aggressive defensively.”

Senegal’s breakthrough came in the 75th minute following a swift Senegalese counter-attack. Substitute Moctar Koïté darted down the right flank and delivered a pinpoint pass into the box, where Gomis arrived unmarked to calmly slot home with his left foot.

Senegal now lead Group D, while Nigeria will aim to bounce back in their next fixture.