Usor Came On For Chukwueze, And Scored Four Minutes Later

Sports

Uyo · Saturday 26 September 2026

Moses Usor, the LASK winger, replaced Samuel Chukwueze on 61 minutes against Madagascar and scored the winning goal four minutes later, on his senior debut. Eric Chelle has since explained the change, and CAF singled the goal out afterwards.

football substitution touchline board Photograph by Martin Reisch via Unsplash.

Why the call was harder than it looks

Chukwueze arrived in camp in the best form of his Milan career: starting in Serie A, earning contract talk about a deal to 2031, praised for three weekends running. Taking him off with the score level, at home, for a player with no caps, is the kind of decision that becomes a national argument if it fails.

What a winning substitution actually tells you. Not that the player taken off was poor. It tells you the manager read the match as needing something different, direct running at tired defenders in this case, and trusted a player he had not yet seen in a competitive game to supply it. Chelle's instinct and his willingness to act on it are the useful information, more than the goal.

Usor's goal, move by move

Moment	What happened
61'	On for Chukwueze
65'	Receives from Semi Ajayi
65'	Drives forward, beats two, cuts inside
65'	Left foot, bottom corner

Four minutes on the pitch, one touch that mattered, three points.

A manager is judged on the substitutions that work and remembered for the ones that do not. This one will be quoted back to him for years, in both directions.

What it does to selection

Chukwueze is not dropped by this and should not be. What changes is the conversation about the wide positions, which now has a player who has scored a winner for Nigeria in the opening game of a qualifying campaign. Selection battles are the healthiest problem a national team can have, and Nigeria has spent most of this year with too few of them.

Reporting: Legit.ng, CAF and Premium Times.

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