t was a result millions of Nigerians and other Super Eagles' supporters expected, considering the circumstances of the Super Eagles in the 2026 World cup qualifying series prior to the encounter against Rwanda, in Kigali, on the 21st of March, 2025. The Super Eagles did as expected; they were efficient and, thus, collected the three points at stake and with two goals to the bargain! Kudos to them!

How did they play in that match?

The Super Eagles lined-up in rather 'unusual' 4-1-4-1 formation, courtesy of the tactical nuances of Coach Eric Chelle; who has already started imprinting his tactical bagage in the Super Eagles' playing style. We shall dwell more on the implications of this new tactical set-up for the Super Eagles' playing style, in the later part of this piece.

The following players lined-up for Nigeria:

Goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali, was in goal. Though not really tested, thanks to the superior defensive organisation of Nigeria, but was at his confident best.

The defensive line had a back four that consisted:

" The dazzling" Bright Osayi-Samuel, at right-back. He had a good game, more especially in his overlapping runs. But, defensively, gave away a good number of times, space to the opposing attacker. A more talented opponent could have made better use of it to the detriment of Nigeria. He should further polish this aspect of his game!

" The usually briliant " Ola Aina, was as usual briliant on the left-back position.

Skipper William Troost-Ekong, alias " Rock of Gibralter", was solid as centre-half back. And, also, as defence marshal and the leader of the team! Kudos to him!

" The kwinkling-tinkling " Calvin Bassey, at left-half back, was also solid. And, periodically, ventured forwards and in the process exhibited his bagage of quintessential skills! Kudos to him!

The defence was very well organised and held stand for the duration of the game. Thus, the hosts couldn't come on the score sheet!

The 'unusual' mid-field combination had the following combination of players:

Wifred Ndidi, alias " The baggy-bagger " or " Ndidi bus-stop ", was the deep-lying mid-field player, in Coach Chelle's formation.

Samuel Chukwueze, alias " El Fantastico ", he didn't play to his level, maybe because of adaptation to Coach Chelle's new tactics ; "The Golden" Ademola Lookman, he gave the assist for the first goal of Nigeria ; Alex Iwobi, alias " The dancing Krekel " and Moses Simon, alias " The Atilogwu dancer "; were the central/offensive mid-fielders in Coach Chelle's formation.

The mid-field held stand for almost the entire game. When it showed weaknesses, Coach Chelle made the necessary changes to shore it up. Kudos to the mid-fielders !

Victor Oshimen, alias " El Magnifico", was the deepest striker. He banged in the two goals for Nigeria! Kudos to him !

The substitutes:

Bruno Onyemaechi; Alhassan Yususf ; Raphael Onyedika and Tolu Arokodare, played well for the time they were in action. Alhassan Yusuf should watch his tackles! One gets the impression he is sometimes overzealous in his tackles. It cost Nigeria a penalty against South-Africa, in the 2023 AFCON semi-final match. Against Rwanda, he committed an avoidable foul close to the vital area of Nigeria. He should be what more calculated in his tackles, more especially, in the vital or close to the vital area.

Tolu Arokodare, also committed an avoidable foul in the opponents' half of the field, that was uncalled for; and got a yellow card that could have been avoided!

Coach Chelle's 4-1-4-1 formation :

The tactical formation of Coach Chelle, is novel. And has the potential for making the Super Eagles a very complete team! The Super Eagles are known for offensive soccer, with the wings being the launching base for their offensive play. The positive aspect of this pattern is that the Super Eagles in an offensive push with a robust wing play, in their elements, easily disorganise opponents' defences; and, sometimes, with the cocomittant flurry of goals that come with it! However, even at the best of times, with a robust wing offensive display, and with the concomittant victory, sometimes courtesy of a flurry of goals, the Super Eagles have somemetimes lost control of the mid-field. This is evidenced by the relative inferior ball possession percentage gotten by the Super Eagles at the end of proceedings! This came about because the wing offensive displays, sometimes, didn't take 'cognisance' of mid-field play. The wingers sometimes got supplies with a long lobbed ball from the defence, and in a swift counter-attack could make hay.

One major disadavantage of this style, is that against an opponent that is adept at ball possession in mid-field, the Super Eagles could get into 'trouble'. And have gotten into trouble quite a number of times! In such a scenario, there might not be the possibility of opportunistic long balls from the defence straight to the wingers to carry out a swift counter attack. And even if that was the case, the opponents could 'paralyse' the wingers with tight-marking. In such a scenario, the wing-oriented display might not be effective!

Coach Chelles's style, is fundamentally, aimed at controlling the mid-field, hence he deployed as many as five players in this department! The aim was to control the mid-field, and, gradually, spread out to the wings or to other areas of the attack. The mid-field is the heart of the game, and in principle, the team that controls the mid-field has a good chance of winning the game!

Another advantage of this style, was that it gave the defence extra coverage. Since the mid-fielders were mobile, they helped the defence copiously, when that was necessary!

However, the slight disadvantage of this style of play of Coach Chelle's as we saw in the match against Rwanda, was that, apparently, because of a lack of mastery of the tactic by the Super Eagles players, the transition to the attack through the mid-field, was slow; more especially, the transition to the wings. Consequently, we didn't see the characteristic constant robust wing offensive displays of the Super Eagles. If that had been the case, the Rwandans could have lost the match with a flurry of goals against them! The Super Eagles of Nigeria, are shades ahead of the Rwandans in senior men's soccer!

In conclusion:

A complete mastery of Coach Chelle's 4-1-4-1 tactic, will make the Super Eagles of Nigeria a more complete team that can take on and defeat even the most skillful/ - technically balanced team, with some decent soccer!

Coach Eric Chelles' baptism of fire as Super Eagles' coach is successful. One hopes it continues that way.

UP COACH ERIC CHELLE ! UP SUPER EAGLES ! UP NIGERIA !!!!!!!