The captain of the senior national team of Sierra Leone Steven Caulker says he is confident that his team will beat Nigeria when they host the Super Eagles at their home ground.
Caulker was a part of the team who were beaten 2-1 by Nigeria depsite taking the lead in the game. Nigeria rallied back to win the tie thanks to goals from Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen.
Sierra Leone however gave a good account of themselves and it is why Caulker says he is optimistic of their chances when they host Nigeria in the return leg of this fixture.
“I am very optimistic about our chances as we await the return leg of this fixture on home soil because we held our own during large part of the game. We defenitely got some areas to improve on, but like the coach said we are in a period of transition with a young team”, he said at the post match conference.
“We felt while we were 1-0 up we sat back and gave Nigeria too much respect and allowed them back into the game,” he said.
He went further to suggest that officiating was slightly in favour of Nigeria as the home team saying when they host Nigeria and get better officiating they will beat the Nigerian team.
“It’s just one game and we still have five more to play even though we felt that there were a few decisions that on another day could have hopefully gone our way.
“We’d like to think that when we host Nigeria we will have these kind of decisions go our way and hopefully win the game.
“These decisions change games and I think we were a little unfortunate today as it could have been a different result. But kudos to Nigeria, they did well and have taken all three points which is a very good way to start”, he rounded up.
