Victor Osimhen scored a header from Ademola Lookman's cross to cancel out Iban Salvador's well-placed opener in AFCON Group A clash between Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea.
Super Eagles coach, Jose Vitor Peseiro lamented over his side's 1-1 draw over Equatorial Guinea, but is hopeful for a change against Ivory Coast, handing the game into God's hands, Soccernet.ng reports.
The Portuguese tactician opted against his usual 4-4-2 formation today, and opted to start with Chippa United's Christian Nwabili in goal, but it was his team's lack of clinicality in front of goal that came back to haunt him.
Speaking in his post-match conference, the Portuguese tactician mentioned his team did enough to take all three points, despite the humid conditions in Ivory Coast.
“We did everything to win, we created many and clear opportunities, and we simply deserved to win. Playing by 2 pm isn't easy, so the temperature and humidity were not good, but our players managed it very well. It wasn't easy playing in these conditions,” the 63-year-old coach said.
The former Porto manager remained optimistic about the team's next game, and put it into the hands of God.
“I am sad, the players are also sad but God gives and God takes. Next game, God could give us,” he added.
Bright Osayi-Samuel, Calvin Bassey, Joe Aribo, Samuel Chukwueze, and Paul Onuachu all came on to change the game for the Super Eagles, but Jesus Owono came up trumps for the Equitoguineans.
Lol…
Who employed such a coach in the first place?
We take funny decisions in Nigeria, sincerely.
Get a proven local coach and give him two years to build a generation of victors.
And not what we’re doing now. It’s a joke.
the coach knows we are very religious so has decided to mock us with the phrase that God gives and takes…..he didn’t realize that jesus was the goalkeeper. for the opponent
naija was ñot packaged enough to win and it will certainly get tougher.
I think the coach was the problem for the Black Star defeat. Ghana should launch a strong attack against the referee. He was terrible against the Black Star team
you better start coming home. you stand ni chance against the Ivorians.
Humid temperature is not an excuse. Are the Equatorial Guineans not humans? The man is just technically incompetent. We should stop been deceitful, we dont have a team to win AFCON for Nigeria, period. The question is, how competent is the coach? How.committed are the players? Your answer is as good as mine.
This is African football, nothing is impossible. Who says Nigeria can not win the tournament despite the early struggles? I accept the fact that the Coach and his crew are not worthy of managing the team because of their incompetence. But we have players that can do the job, and I didn’t lose hope yet. I watched the Ivorian match against Eq Guinea, though they won 2-0 but not that spectacular in terms of performance. I think the major problem we are having right now is that our midfielders creative at all. Majority of midfielders are defensive minded. Iwobi was very poor against the Guineans. But I believe we can do much better against Cote d’Ivore and Guinea Bissau.