Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro, and his team fell to a fourth consecutive defeat after a 1-0 loss to 118th-ranked Guinea-Bissau on Friday evening at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja.
While the Portuguese gaffer had earlier claimed that his past defeats were because they played top national team sides like World Cup semifinalist Portugal, Friday’s loss was to a supposed African football minnow, which has caused huge criticism from football enthusiasts.
Nigeria won their first two games in the qualifiers, but the matchday 3 loss means Nigeria dropped to second place just as Guinea-Bissau climbed to the top of Group A with seven points.
Peseiro faced questions from angry questions from journalists during the post-match conference. One of the questions, the gaffer, was asked if he would be surprised to be sacked by the NFF the day after the defeat.
But Peseiro, smiling, replied rhetorically, “I would be surprised if I’m sacked now.”
He then continued that his boys played well but were unlucky to get a goal during the encounter.
“In today’s game in the first 30 minutes, we created chances, but the likes of Osimhen, Chukwueze, and Ndidi could not score.
“But I believe my team played better than the results reflect, so for me, it’s a joke to talk about sacking me.”
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“I feel if we played for another hour, we still wouldn’t score; sometimes it happens in football. I’m not happy, of course. I’m sad with my team. But they did the max. They created many opportunities, but it was a bad day,” Peseiro added.
Adding to Peseiro’s reaction, Alex Iwobi, who played for the entire 90 minutes, appealed to fans to give the team time to make amendments.
“First and foremost, as the players and staff we know we have to react to the result, we are going to look at the game and analyse. All we can do to improve and to all the fans, all I can do is they should stick by us and support us because we give 100% not just for ourselves but also for our nation.
Anytime we come here, we are fine. We know there are a lot of people and we are privileged to wear the shirt. Next time, we are going to do our best and make the country proud.”
The second leg comes up on Monday.
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