Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro has expressed his disappointment at the result between his side and the Elephants of Equatorial Guinea on Sunday at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Ivory Coast.
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Nigeria were hoping the presence of African Player of the Year Victor Osimhen could spark a successful opening campaign but they were held to a 1-1 draw by Equatorial Guinea in Group A.
Osimhen nodded in to level in the 38th minute of the first half almost immediately after Iban Edu had opened the scoring in a match that ended with both teams on one point, two fewer than the host nation.
“I am not happy. This draw does not suit us. Our team created a lot of chances but we did not score,” said Peseiro in a post-match interview.
“We wanted to win, we did everything to win. We created clear-cut chances and we deserved to win and beat Equatorial Guinea. At the last AFCON tournament, they did better than us, they fought hard to make sure we had no clear opening.”
“If u draw and your opponent deserves a win then you must accept it because I think we deserved to beat Equatorial Guinea but sometimes these things happen in football. We created a lot of opportunities but couldn’t score enough but I believe we can create fewer opportunities and score more.”
“I am sad about the result but I am not sad about the capacity to play”
“We need to command and control the game and at the same time attack and improve our finishing and hopefully, we get lucky.”
The Portuguese also gave an update on Alhassan Yusuf’s injury saying” I don’t like to speak about individual performances but this guy(Alhassan) did a very good job I pray his injury is not serious but he has shown that he deserves to play for the Super Eagles.”
Nigeria will face the host, Ivory Coast on Thursday in their second group A game, a game the three times African champions must win to stand a good chance of qualifying for the next round.
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