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Jose Peseiro is excited to win his first game as Super Eagles coach as Nigeria managed to beat Sierra Leone 2-1 in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the MKO Abiola National Stadium on Thursday evening, Megasportsarena.com reports.
The Leone Stars were pegged back by Alex Iwobi’s beauty in the 16th minute after Jonathan Morsay had given the visitors the lead on 11 minutes to send shivers down the spine of Nigerian fans.
Victor Osimhen would later grab the winner four minutes before halftime when he poked the ball home from close range.
“I am very happy our team won. We played better in the friendly matches against Mexico and Ecuador but lost, our team played much better and lost to both countries, creating five, six opportunities yet lost. Today, our team was better than Sierra Leone. Our team, this squad, these players can play much better, that’s my opinion.” Peseiro said in a post match interview.
The former Venezuela and Saudi Arabia coach excused his team for the noticed flaws in the game and hopes for better outings in subsequent matches.
“We had just five or four practice sessions and don’t forget that some players got to camp late too, this really affected us. I think we need more time. I don’t feel the team is fresh, I don’t know if the coaches put too much practice in them.
“Our team didn’t play well but won. I remember when we lost against Ecuador, everybody complained, we had seven chances against them yet we failed to win. What do you prefer? Win or play well and lose? I prefer both. Play well and win.
“Our team deserved to win today and we had more chances especially in the second half when I changed one striker for Etebo, Sadiq for Etebo, we controlled the match more.
“Only in the last ten minutes did Sierra Leone unsettle us, although they looked fresher than our boys. We deserved to win this match but we can improve, we can play much better, our players have the quality for that.”
The Portuguese, who said he hates to concede goals, however insisted things will improve as time goes on.
“I don’t like to concede goals but it happened. Today we could have won 3-1 because we created two or three chances. In the second half, Samuel and Lookman could have scored but they were just unfortunate. We will work on the defence so that we concede less goals, we must work more of course, I have quality but we must work more – more time, more sessions, more time with us, more meetings.”
Peseiro also talked about noticed frailties in his team’s defence and what he will do to plug the loopholes.
“The defenders played better against Ecuador but not today, especially in the last minute of the second half. The defensive issue is for everybody, not only the defenders and we work on it before our next match.” He promised.
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