Chelle: How the tactical change helped us draw with Russia

Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle revealed that a tactical change in his team’s attack led to them fighting back in the 3-3 draw against Russia in Tuesday’s friendly match.

Russia moved towards victory after coming back from a goal down to lead 3-1, after Kelechi Iheanacho gave the Super Eagles a lead in the 10th minute.

But goals from Benfica debutant Peter Edokpolor, 19, in the 78th minute, and Akor Adams’ goal in the 94th minute, saw Chelle’s team force their hosts to a draw.

Before the tie, Umar Abubakar, who also made his first appearance and provided the assist for Adams’ goal, almost made it 3-3 in the 91st minute, but the Russian goalkeeper denied him with a magnificent save.

Speaking after the match, Chelle said: “The match was good for both teams, Russia had momentum towards the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second half it was the same. But we found a solution because tactically we changed something in our forwards and they (Russia) couldn’t find a solution and that’s why we scored two goals in transition.

“The mood of my team was very good, I am proud of my players.”

Also Read: Friendly: ‘Efforts were not bad at all’: Ugbade reacts to Eagles’ six-goal thriller against Russia

Chelle gave many players their debuts no thanks to the withdrawals of most of the Super Eagles first team stars.

Following the impressive performance of some of the debutants, the Malian hinted that some of them could be invited to the AFCON 2027 qualifier against Tanzania in November.

“We had two objectives, the AFCON 2027 and the Olympic Games and as I said in the press conference yesterday we had problems bringing some players because their clubs did not allow them. So we came with some of the players that we plan to use for the Under-23s, and with what they showed us maybe some of them will be in the Super Eagles in the next FIFA window.”

By James Agberebi