If there is a god of soccer, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, it deserted the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
On the dot of 90 minutes, with only added time of some five minutes left to play, Eric Chelle had his plan for winning the match. He replaced a forward with another forward.
He replaced Victor Osimhen, the most consistent finisher in the team, with Boniface who had not scored a single goal for the national team to date. Or has he? If any player was likely to score, it would be Osimhen.
I did not understand the substitution. If Eric wanted the team to ‘shut down’ and run down the match as they did successfully against Rwanda, basic tactics would require that he added a player to the midfield/defense area, get the players to keep possession of the ball as much as possible, and to close up the spaces in the midfield, disallowing the opposing team from doing anything constructive.
That is what…
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