Super Eagles skipper, Ahmed Musa has stated that the poor pitch of the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba contributed to the team’s uninspiring display against the Pirates of Seychelles Friday.
The Eagles limped to a 3-1 win against the Pirates who have been the whipping team of the group right from the commencement of the qualifiers and conceded 25 goals throughout the course of their six games.
Goals from Odion Ighalo from the penalty spot in the 35th minute after Wilfred Ndidi was fouled in the vital area and two further from Henry Onyekuru and substitute, Moses Simon in the 50th and 90th minutes after Rody Melanie had briefly equalised Nigeria’s curtain raiser for the Pirates in the 42nd minute.
Speaking with journalists after the hard fought win, Musa stressed that the pitch and the inability of the Eagles to train together for a long period of time other the three days also contributed to the dull encounter.
He promised that the Eagles will play better against the Pharaohs of Egypt.
“I will say that the Eagles tried their best against Seychelles,” Musa told journalists.
“I know that the expectations were high that we would wallop them but we battled many factors including poor pitch and the fact that Eagles only have three days to train together.
” We hope to play an improved game against Egypt on Tuesday.”
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The Eagles ended the AFCON qualifiers as the top team in Group E with 14 points from six games in spite of losing the first game 2-0 at home to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa.