Captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Mikel Obi says the England national team used a negative tactics in their 2-1 friendly win over Nigeria at Wembley on Saturday evening.
England dominated the first half and took a well deserved 2-0 lead into the half time break before a second half rally by Nigeria helped them reduce the deficit to 2-1. A score which ended as the final score of the game.
Speaking at the mixed zone shortly after the game, Mikel explained why Nigeria struggled to get going in the first half and what led to the decision to switch to a 3-5-2 formation, which helped them dominate the second half of the game.
” When you play against a team with five at the back they always have an extra man. How do you play against a team with five at the back?.
“It’s always difficult but I think in the second half we changed played five at the back to try and match them as well. We did and then we played much better, we created lot of chances and we scored a goal. We know we can play, we have to keep playing this way”, Mikel said.
Mikel refused to comment on the areas the team need to improve on before the World Cup insisting that the team need to work together to cover up for any lapses.
Nigeria will take on Czech Republic in their final warm up game in six days time at their training camp in Austria before travelling to Russia for their first game against Croatia.
Michael James
