‘We go to make war’: Chelle vows to beat World Cup giants Portugal & Poland in their backyard

Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has fired a rallying cry ahead of the Summer Series after watching his Super Eagles side claim the Unity Cup with a victory over Jamaica in London.

The Franco-Malian boss has promised that Nigeria’s Super Eagles will not be passive opponents when they face World Cup-qualified Poland and star-studded Portugal.

The coach paid respect to the quality of the upcoming opponents, calling Poland’a good team’ before describing Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, who also have Bruno Fernandes and back-to-back European Champions Vitinha and Joao Neves in their squad, as ‘maybe the best team in the world’.

“No, we go definitely to make a fight, to make a war,” Chelle said bluntly. “If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose. But if we lose, they have to work on us. They have to beat us, beat us to win these two games.”

Despite missing two of his best players in Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman, and Unity Cup hero, Femi Azeez, Chelle still made his aim clear: to travel to their countries and try to take results on their turf.

“I want to go in their country, in their own country to beat them,” he added. “Because I’m sad I don’t go to the World Cup, maybe it will be something very good for me.”

Chelle’s words set a combative tone ahead of high-profile friendlies that will test Nigeria against proven international sides and offer the coach a chance to measure his team, and himself against some of Europe’s leading nations.

The gauntlet has been officially thrown down. Taking both World Cup sides on with a heavily rotated, skeleton squad on their own pitches sounds like an absolute suicide mission on paper.

But with a manager this fiercely determined to go down swinging, the Super Eagles are guaranteed to make it an absolute spectacle.