Nigeria Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has reacted to the on-field spat between his forwards Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman during the 2025 AFCON round of 16 clash against Mozambique, MySportDab reports.
Nigeria thrashed the Mozambiquans 4–0 to secure the biggest victory in the round and book their quarterfinal ticket.
Again Osimhen shone bright for the Super Eagles in the clash, scoring a brace to secure victory, with Ademola Lookman and Akor Adams also on target for the three-time African champions.
However, the game was devoid of heated moments for the Nigerian team. Four minutes after the hour mark, Osimhen was seen embroiled in a heated clash with Lookman while Nigeria were three goals up.
The Galatasaray forward briskly walked up to Lookman and engaged the Atalanta man in a fiery exchange before being separated by his teammates.
The cause of the fallout remains unclear, but it occurred just a few moments after Lookman squandered an good goalscoring opportunity when Osimhen was in good position to receive the ball.
Addressing the incident after the match, Eric Chelle said he will not talk about it as it remains a private issue that will be addressed behind closed doors by the team.
“This is a question about my management and what happened in the pitch will stay in the group, I don’t need to tell anyone what happened.
“I keep that for me and everything that happened in the group stay in the group so we will see after that and we will talk.”
Speaking on the Super Eagles’ performance against Mozambique, Chelle lauded the team, but added there is no room for complacency.
“I’m happy about this game winning by four goals but in reality we didn’t do anything special, we just won one game. If we want to be ambitious we need to continue to improve and keep this quality on the pitch.
“My job now is to keep the players very focus about their training sessions and behaviour.”
Nigeria will learn their quarterfinal opponents after the conclusion of Algeria vs DR Congo clash today.
