Eric Chelle faces MOTM Femi Azeez in the Unity Cup semi-finals after the match

Femi Azeez was the star of the night as Nigeria and Zimbabwe clashed in The Valley for a place in the 2026 Unity Cup final.

Azeez scored a brace in his first outing as Super Eagles and it was enough to send Eric Chelle’s team to Saturday’s final at the same venue.

The 24-year-old earned rave reviews for his goals, but the Millwall all-rounder received plenty of love from the Super Eagles coach.

When asked about the player’s performance after the match, Chelle highlighted that the youngster needs to do more to earn future invitations.

“Congratulations to Azeez on his brace,” Chelle began. “Our goal was to make sure they ran a lot and played a high-pressure game for 90 minutes, but they didn’t do that.

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“We will analyze his performance; he lost many balls and could not recover them. He was not happy.

“If I wake up in a good mood and want him in the team for the friendlies in Portugal and Poland, they will call him up or not.”

Azeez in purple patch

Femi Azeez had a good season with Championship side Millwall last season and helped fuel their promotion to the Premier League.

In the regular season, the midfielder scored 19 goals (11 goals and 8 assists) in 35 league games.

Millwall made the playoffs but were eliminated by Hull City.

The player could use that disappointment in the playoffs and Chelle’s words as momentum to put on another special show when Nigeria plays in the final.