Nigeria has crashed out of the African Nations Championship (CHAN) following a humiliating 4-0 loss to Sudan.
The CHAN Eagles delivered a disappointing performance, showing no urgency or desire to win. They were completely outplayed in possession, statistics, and overall gameplay.
Nigeria thought they had gone ahead in the 22nd minute when Anthony Ijoma put the ball in the back of the net, but it was ruled out by VAR for offside.
Three minutes later, Sudan broke the deadlock after Leonard Ngenge put the ball in his own net. Ngenge made another mistake in first-half stoppage time, this time giving away a penalty.
Walieldin Khdir stepped up and put the ball past Mustapha Lawal into the top right corner. Fifteen minutes after the restart, Abdelrazig Omer made matters worse for the Super Eagles, netting a third. Sudan sealed the humiliation with a fourth via Abdelrazig Omer, completing his brace.
It was Nigeria’s joint-highest defeat in the CHAN, alongside the 2018 final loss to Morocco.
The team has now conceded five goals in two matches and has yet to score in the tournament.
Eric Chelle blamed the defeat on costly errors:
“We enjoyed the first twenty minutes, we played our football, and we scored a goal. After that, we made a lot of mistakes and conceded the equaliser in the second half. We gave away four goals from mistakes. This is the reality — it hurts because it’s our fault.”
Sudan’s head coach Kwesi Appiah was a bit critical of Eric Chelle. He emphasized that the Malian tactician needs to improve his attacking tactics:
“I think the home-based Super Eagles aren’t that bad. On the whole, tactically, they played well. The coach only needs to do some polishing with the attack. The first game against Senegal wasn’t that bad; in the second game, they had stints of possession, but our approach helped us.”
Nigeria currently sits at the bottom of Group D. Sudan are top of the group, level on points with Senegal, while Congo sits third with two points.
All three remaining teams still have a chance to progress — except Nigeria, whose campaign has ended early.
