Chelle urges Nigeria to block outside noise
Nigeria needs to disregard outside noise and stay focused on its Africa Cup of Nations campaign after missing out on qualifying for next year's World Cup, coach Eric Chelle said.
The Super Eagles face Tanzania in their opening Group C game on Wednesday, and the Malian coach urged his players to put behind them the disappointment of failing to reach the World Cup playoffs after defeat by Democratic Republic of Congo in November.
"We prefer to stay focused at all times. I told the players to concentrate on themselves and on our development project. This is the most important thing we have," Chelle said.
"We are our first opponent, we need to focus on ourselves and take out outside noise. Of course, the World Cup miss is painful".
"We are here to win this first game. We have a tournament to play and we are here to be ambitious. I don’t have time to think about what happened before. I prefer to stay focused on what is happening right now," he added.
Nigeria is struggling in defence due to injuries and the retirement of veteran William Troost-Ekong before the AFCON, but the 48 year-old coach expressed full confidence in his squad.
The 2023 Nations Cup runner-up will also play Tunisia on 27 December and Uganda three days later in the group stage.
