AFCON: Chelle says Nigeria satisfied with win against Tanzania

Nigeria national team head coach Eric Chelle admitted that the most important thing against Tanzania was to pick up three points from their opening fixture of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco on Tuesday.

The Super Eagles opened their campaign with a hard-earned 2-1 victory over Tanzania, as Ademola Lookman struck the winner barely a minute after the Taifa Stars had drawn level.

Nigeria had controlled much of the first half and were rewarded nine minutes before the interval when Semi Ajayi rose highest to power home a header from an Alex Iwobi delivery.

However, Tanzania levelled matters in the second half when Charles M’Mbowa burst through and slide a composed finish past Stanley Nwabali. Tanzania could not celebrate for a while, as within sixty seconds, Lookman produced a moment of class, curling in an unstoppable effort from the edge area for the winner.

‘I want to focus on the positives’

“We are satisfied with the three points. That is the most important. For the moment, I want to focus on the positives. The second part of the game shows clearly that there is still some work to be done — especially when it comes to killing the game.

“We are aware of this, and we will work on it,” Chelle said as quoted by CAFOnline.com.

Nigeria star Semi Ajayi, who won man of match, said after the game: “It’s an amazing feeling to score for your country and in such a game it gives us the possibility of getting a good start.

“We had an amazing tournament in Ivory Coast and we are using that as a standard. We are a team we don’t need to get goals only from the attackers and it’s pleasing to contribute to the success of the team.

“There are a lot of positives to take from the game and some things to fix and we will work on that to kill games going forward.”

Nigeria will return to action against Tunisia, who kicked off their campaign with as 3-1 win against Uganda. The matchday two fixture will be played on Saturday, December 27 at Fez Stadium.