BY Victor Akhidenor
Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has said his team are condemned to win in South Africa on Wednesday after the 3-2 home loss to Congo.
South Africa top Group A after beating Sudan 3-0 on Friday and they welcome the African champions in Cape Town.
Now, Keshi has called on his players to redeem themselves on Wednesday.
“It’s football. Brazil lost 7-1 and we lost (on Saturday). Everybody is going to lose someday. We cannot win all the games all the time. This is where we need the media and Nigerians. They have to be behind the team, so that we can go to South Africa and win,” Keshi said in his post-match analysis.
“I’m very disappointed. It was not just the result but the way we played in the first half. I was like a soothsayer because I saw it coming and I talked to the boys that they had to be aggressive and first to the ball.
“I’ve played against the Congolese team before and I know they play tip-tap football. We scored the first goal and that was it. It’s a shame that we had opportunities, mostly in the second half, but we could not score.”
Keshi said the Eagles played with a lot more aggression in the second half but Congo ‘’parked the bus’’ to prevent Nigeria from scoring.
“I told them [players] they were not playing their game. They were not themselves’ they were not playing; they were second to the ball and they needed to change the mentality,” he said.
“They came back in the second half and you could see the difference. But if you are playing a team like this, they are going to come hard and park the bus. And that’s what they did in the second half. Who won’t do it?
Keshi also defended his team’s apparent expression of frustration, which saw Mikel Obi and Ahmed Musa land avoidable yellow cards.
“I can understand the frustration, the Congolese team delaying the game, killing the game. It became an anger problem and its part of the game,” he said.
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