Nigeria’s Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has urged his players to be aggressive and play with intensity against Madagascar.
The Super Eagles will host Madagascar on matchday 1 of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations in Uyo on Friday.
This would be the fifth meeting between the Super Eagles and Madagascar in the AFCON qualifiers with the three-time African champions yet to lose (three wins, one draw).
Speaking in his pre-match presser on Thursday, Chelle said: “We want to stay focus on our group and our team, this is our job, to manage the pressure. The qualifiers start tomorrow, we have to be ready first for the group and for us and after, of course for the country.
Also Read: If We Trust Chelle He’ll Qualify Us For Next World Cup –Ex-Super Eagles Star
There’s a big game tomorrow, we had the last training session to prepare for this game. This team has a good ranking in the world, so we are motivated and the first idea is to give the signal to everybody, every nation who Nigeria is.
“My players are in a good state of mind, they understand everything and like I said this is not a question of to win or lose, this is a question of state of mind.
“We are in Uyo and the opponent needs to know they are coming to hell, I want my player to be very aggressive, put a lot of intensity. We have to go forward and try to forget about what happened last year, to be ambitious at every moment, every training session, every game and if we do that, of course, we can hope to win every game.”
The Super Eagles will be looking to have a strong start to the 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign following their disappointing 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
Despite going into the World Cup qualifiers as clear favourites to pick the sole automatic ticket, in a group that had South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Rwanda and Benin Republic, the Eagles struggled in the early stages, picking up three points in their first four matches.
By James Agberebi
