diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9acf63a..942a4ef 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 ### Fixed
 * Ansible-lint: Fix line longer than 160 chars.
+* Start nftables systemd unit earlier (thanks to @kravietz − PR #19).
 
 ## v1.7.0
 
diff --git a/templates/lib/systemd/system/nftables.service.j2 b/templates/lib/systemd/system/nftables.service.j2
index 5487cea..433da76 100644
--- a/templates/lib/systemd/system/nftables.service.j2
+++ b/templates/lib/systemd/system/nftables.service.j2
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@
 [Unit]
 Description={{ nft_service_name }}
 Documentation=man:nft(8) http://wiki.nftables.org
-;Before=fail2ban.service
+Wants=network-pre.target
+Before=network-pre.target shutdown.target
+Conflicts=shutdown.target
+DefaultDependencies=no
 
 [Service]
 Type=oneshot
@@ -17,4 +20,4 @@ ExecReload={{ nft__bin_location }} -f {{ nft_main_conf_path }}
 ExecStop={{ nft__bin_location }} flush ruleset
 
 [Install]
-WantedBy=multi-user.target
+WantedBy=sysinit.target