Nigeria began their campaign at the 2025 African Cup of Nations tournament in Morocco with an impressive 2-1 win over Tanzania on Tuesday, much to the admiration of head coach Eric Chelle.
The Super Eagles who were beaten finalists in the last tournament in Ivory Coast, lived up to their tags as favorites with maximum points in their opening group C clash.
Despite dominating for most of the clash, the team’s loss of concentration at crucial moments almost proved costly as they were made to sweat for the three points.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Eric Chelle was impressed with the display, but revealed that the players must improve certain areas of the game ahead of their remaining matches at the tournament.
“We have to analyse this win because we did a lot of food things in the first half, we created chances to score and in the second half we gave Tanzania the chance to come back into the game”, the former Mali head coach said.
Semi Ajayi put Nigeria ahead with a powerful header in the 36th minute and the tally could have been doubled by Victor Osimhen in the second half, but the forward’s strike was ruled out for offside.
Tanzania briefly leveled through Charles M’Mombwa who took advantage of poor defensive play by the Super Eagles.
However, Ademola Lookman proved decisive once more with the winner, scoring a stunning curling effort in the 52nd minute of the clash.
“We did some mistakes but we are happy for the win and the most important thing at the AFCON is to improve in every game so now after the analysis we will do in the morning we have to continue to improve because we will face Tunisia next who are a big team”, Chelle continued.
“We need to improve on a lot of things defensively, put in more movement when we have the ball and when we don’t, so I praise my players for the win but we have lots of work.”
Nigeria will now shift their focus to the next match against Tunisia, who were 3-1 winners over Uganda, at the Fez Stadium on Saturday, with both sides eyeing a spot in the next round.
Olakitan is a young writer with a strong passion for sports, having gained experience with IndyPress and Nimelssa Press. His enthusiasm for sports inspired him to cover events both within his school and beyond. With a deep understanding of the game and a refined skillset, he brings sports coverage to a broad, global audience in a way that’s engaging and accessible.
