The CHAN Eagles were beaten in the final of the 2018 CHAN four years after they finished third in the tournament and now they will hope to go all the way to the gold at the 2024 edition.
On Tuesday, inside the 15,000-capacity Amaan Stadium, the home-based Super Eagles will go for the maximum points against defending champions Senegal to underscore Nigeria’s ambition, as well as to diminish anxiety ahead of the other group games against with Sudan and Congo.
Christened ‘Pamoja 2024’, this year’s African Nations Championship promises a lot of thrills and excitement across five venues in three host nations – a novel arrangement in hosting of sports events on the African continent.
The Confederation of African Football awarded a joint bid by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda the hosting right for the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations, and afterwards opted to grant the three nations the opportunity to use the CHAN as a dress rehearsal.
Coach Eric Sekou Chelle, who is also in charge of the ‘A’ team, has spoken of belief and self-confidence among his 23-man squad, who spent three weeks at a training camp in Ikenne-Remo and another 10 days in Zanzibar (to which was embedded two drawn matches against the Zanzibar National Team).
Chelle still has goalkeeper Ozoemena Ani, defenders Sodiq Ismaila and Junior Nduka, midfielder Alex Oyowah and forwards Anas Yusuf and Sikiru Alimi – who were in the squad that turned back Ghana’s Black Galaxies 3-0 on aggregate in the qualifiers.
However, there have been excellent additions like Steven Mayo and Leonard Ngenge in the defence, Adedayo Olamilekan, Hadi Haruna and Michael Tochukwu in the midfield, and Temitope Vincent, Shola Adelani and Godwin Obaje in the attack.
Joint-hosts Tanzania took the first three points of the tournament Saturday night, beating Burkina Faso 2-0 in their Group B encounter at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam.
