{"id":165984,"date":"2025-06-07T09:57:47","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T08:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes"},"modified":"2025-06-07T11:12:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T10:12:23","slug":"super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes","title":{"rendered":"Super Eagles Coach Chelle Defends Safonov&#8217;s Mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has defended Russia goalkeeper Matvey Safonov following his error during the two sides\u2019 1-1 international friendly draw on Friday in Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Recall that Safonov mistakenly passed the ball to substitute Tolu Arokodare, who slotted home the Super Eagles\u2019 equalising goal in the 71st minute. Semi Ajayi had earlier scored an own goal in the first half of the encounter at the Luzhniki Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Reacting to the error made by the Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper, Chelle expressed his support for the 26-year-old by insisting that everyone makes mistakes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone makes mistakes \u2013 it\u2019s part of the game,\u201d Chelle said at his post-match interview when asked about Safonov\u2019s error.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGoals are scored precisely because of mistakes. I don\u2019t think the goalkeeper is the only one to blame \u2013 it\u2019s the result of the entire team\u2019s actions. I follow the French championship and I can say: you\u2019ve a great goalkeeper,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has defended Russia goalkeeper Matvey Safonov following his error during the two sides\u2019 1-1 international friendly draw on Friday in Moscow. Recall that Safonov mistakenly passed the ball to substitute Tolu Arokodare, who slotted home the Super Eagles\u2019 equalising goal in the 71st minute. Semi Ajayi had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":165983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[15590,254,5208,17700,453],"class_list":["post-165984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-chelle","tag-nigeria","tag-russia","tag-safonov","tag-super-eagles"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Super Eagles Coach Chelle Defends Safonov&#039;s Mistakes - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has defended Russia goalkeeper Matvey Safonov following his error during the two sides\u2019 1 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Super Eagles Coach Chelle Defends Safonov&#039;s Mistakes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has defended Russia goalkeeper Matvey Safonov following his error during the two sides\u2019 1 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-07T08:57:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-06-07T10:12:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1749278610.377298.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1152\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Super Eagles Coach Chelle Defends Safonov&#8217;s Mistakes\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-07T08:57:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-06-07T10:12:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes\"},\"wordCount\":177,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/06\/sm_1749278610.377298.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Chelle\",\"Nigeria\",\"Russia\",\"Safonov\",\"super eagles\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/super-eagles-coach-chelle-defends-safonovs-mistakes\",\"name\":\"Super Eagles Coach Chelle Defends Safonov's Mistakes - 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