Super Eagles head coach Finidi George has provided an honest assessment of his side’s performance in their sloppy draw with South Africa on Friday, Soccernet.ng reports.
Looking for their first win of the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, Nigeria could only limp to a lame 1-1 draw against the visiting Bafana Bafana.
In a game of two contrasting halves, South Africa dominated the opening 45 minutes and were unlucky to head to the halftime break with only Themba Zwane’s excellent strike to show for their industry and invention.
The Super Eagles, however, flew out of the blocks after the break and equalised in the 46th minute through Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who was making his competitive debut for Nigeria.
Ademola Lookman, Alex Iwobi, Paul Onuachu, and Samuel Chukwueze all had chances to win it for Nigeria but a lack of efficiency denied the three-time African champions the victory fans expected.
Speaking after the encounter, as per OganlaMedia, Finidi admitted that the Super Eagles were outclassed in the first half of the encounter.
The former Enyimba coach, however, applauded his players for putting up a better showing after the interval, even if he was displeased that the Eagles could not bag the maximum points.
“We started sloppy in the first half, we took over the game immediately we scored in the second half,” Finidi said.
“We missed chances, overall it was not a bad second half for us. The players reacted well in the second half, but it was not the best result we wanted, we have to get our heads up and work for the next game (Benin Republic). I am not happy about the point.”
Nigeria will next trade tackles with the Benin Republic on Monday, June 10, in what is a reunion with former Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr.
Rohr’s Benin boast four points from three games, one better than Nigeria’s tally from the same number of matches.