AFCON 2025
Super Eagles manager was present at the Estadio Jose Alvalade during the week to watch Gahonese star striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as Sporting Lisbon hosted Marseille in the UEFA Champions League.
Aubameyang had an impressive outing for the Ligue 1 side in their 2-1 loss to the host on Tuesday night. The former Arsenal and Barcelona striker provided the assist for Igor Paixao opener.
The 36-year-old veteran has been in decent form for Gabon as he scored seven goals in the World Cup qualification series with four in a single match against Gambia in the 4-3 thriller two weeks ago.
Ahead of the playoffs between Nigeria and Gabon next month im Morocco, Chelle praised the striker among two of his teammates in the national team and identified them as threats to the Super Eagles.
“I am here in Portugal to see my daughter, but I watched the game Sporting against Marseille in the Champions League and Aubameyang played this game,” Chelle told Segun Odegbami of Eagle7 103.7 Sports FM, Abeokuta.”
“Gabon have a good team. They have some great players like Aubameyang, Lemina, and Bruno Ecuele Manga.”
“They have a good coach with a good philosophy. When the team plays, we can see they are impressive.”
Eric Chelle stressed that Gabon have a good squad but his focus is how the Super Eagles will set up against them next month.
The Malian tactican believes the Super Eagles are capable of winning against them but expressed concerns over injury concerns of some Super Eagles players.
However, he went ahead to praise his backroom staff for watching the players and providing reports on their performances for their respective clubs ahead of next month’s showdown.
“This is a final; the important thing now is to be focused on only ourselves. My job now is to analyse Gabon and to think about the game, maybe I’d like to defend all of the game or make a high press.”
“I need to make a choice, and for that we need to analyse our players. The reality is that we have a lot of injuries in our team, so we need to find the best way.”
“This is why the technical staff follow the players and watch a lot of games. We are very positive. The reality is that if the team is at 100 percent, there is no reason we cannot win this game.”
Nigeria will take on Gabon in Morroco on November 13 for a place in the final of the playoffs final. A win for the Super Eagles will them play either Cameroon or DR Congo in the final three days later.
The winner of the final willl secure a place in the inter-conferderation playoffs in Mexico March next year where the Super Eagles, if they win the final, will get a bye to play just a match being one of the two highest-ranked teams among the six contenders.
