At last year’s AFCON, the complaint was that the Super Eagles were playing “negative” football and not scoring goals and yet they went all the way to the championship game against most expectations.
In Cote d’Ivoire, coach Jose Peseiro came up with 3-5-2 formation that made the Super Eagles defence one of the meanest at the tournament.
In the first round, they managed three goals in as many matches, while letting in only a goal.
For Morocco 2025, it has been a different story as the Super Eagles are scoring goals, but also being scored against.
In their three group games, they failed to keep a clean sheet and let in four goals.
The statisticians among us have been up in arms against the team as a result.
The other side of the divide is that the Super Eagles have recorded their most prolific first round AFCON campaign ever by firing eight goals, which were scored by five different players.
The difference between the 2023 AFCON and this year’s edition is that while Peseiro was conservative in his tactical approach, Eric Chelle has preferred to take risks going forward.
Yes, in Morocco the defence is the weakest link of the Super Eagles.
The fullbacks Zaidu Sanusi and Bright Osayi-Samuel have struggled to convince and goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali, who was almost unbeatable in Cote d’Ivoire, is now a big suspect.
The experienced Francis Uzoho got his chance in goal against Uganda and he was decent. His footwork has improved, he is a lot more confident and he was not to blame for the Uganda goal as the defence was guilty of ball watching.
He is an assured option for Nwabali.
Eric Chelle has also admitted his team have to do better when defending against set pieces as two of the four goals they have conceded were from such situations.
The coach started as many as eight new players against Uganda and besides Uzoho, Raphael Onyedika, Samuel Chukwueze, Moses Simon and Paul Onuachu put up their hand for bigger roles at this tournament.
The Super Eagles are playing some good football, scoring goals, which is the essence of the game, and they will go into the business end of the competition high on belief.
As long as they continue to score more goals than the other team, they will continue their march in Morocco clean sheet or not.
