Super Eagles head coach Éric Chelle has revealed that he has yet to finalize his starting XI for Nigeria’s third-place clash against Egypt at the Mohammed V Stadium, Casablanca, scheduled for Saturday, reports Nigeriasoccernet.com.
The West Africans played a grueling semi-final against hosts Morocco on Wednesday, which ended 4-2 in favor of the Atlas Lions after a 120-minute goalless draw and penalties.
Chelle highlighted the physical toll on his players, citing injury concerns for Victor Osimhen and the suspension of centre-back Calvin Bassey.
“I spoke about that, just told the truth, you cannot play two games in 48 hours with the same intensity,” Chelle said. “You have to wait 72 hours… and I think that we were tired before the Morocco game.”
He added that balancing rest and performance has been challenging: “I had two options, maybe take a risk and change the whole team, and if we lost, you would ask, ‘ahh, why you change the team.’ But my philosophy will be, we want to win this game. So I will put the best players for this game.”
With a demanding tournament schedule behind them, Chelle faces the task of optimizing his squad to secure a podium finish against a determined Egyptian side.