Eric Chelle has said the Super Eagles are still alive in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification thanks to their hard-fought 2-1 win against Lesotho in Group C on Friday.
Goals from William Troost-Ekong and debutant Akor Adams helped the Super Eagles secure their third win in the group.
The win means the Super Eagles are now on 14 points and occupy third position on the log.
They are three points behind group leaders Benin Republic who defeated Rwanda 1-0 in Kigali.
Bafana Bafana of South Africa remain in second place on 15 points after a disappointing goalless draw with Zimbabwe.
Speaking in his post-match presser, Chelle said:”Today we are happy because we won the three points, we are still alive. I’m happy for my players, I want to congratulate them, for us we’ve been feeling the pressure since March and when my players come to camp they feel the pressure because for Nigeria we need to go to the World Cup, so we have lots of pressure, so maybe other teams will have some pressure too.”
Also Read: 2026 WCQ: Super Eagles’ Rating Player-By-Player In Slim Win Over Lesotho
Chelle called on Uyo fans to show full support to the Super Eagles in Tuesday’s decider with Benin Republic.
“We need to have our fans behind us to put pressure on Benin, this is the World Cup qualifiers, so and this game start when they put their feet in our country, we need to do the job on the pitch.”
Giving his thoughts on the gake against Lesotho Troost-Ekong said:”Lesotho played a great game, it wasn’t easy to come here, we knew that from the start and I can understand the disappointment and frustration because they put up a very good fight.
“This kind of games are never easy, the coach talked about the pressure which has been on us since March and maybe since the start of the qualifiers. We just want to focus on ourselves we are a team of guys that have winning mentality, they want to be winners.
“We want to be at the World Cup we’ve said that now for the last nine months and we have the opportunity now with the game in Uyo against Benin who we know we have to score certain amount of goals, it was always the case we need to win the game and we have to win it convincingly.
“It’s going to be a big test again but now I think the team is really ready, we’ve been working on the pressure for such a long time and we know this is the final and we worked really hard to get there and like the coach said I’m proud of the team.”
By James Agberebi
