Nigeria suffered one of their heaviest defeat in ten years by losing 0-4 to Portugal yesterday in an international friendly game played at the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon.
Bruno Fernandes first half brace set the pace for what was am emphatic win for the World Cup bound Portuguese team, who are tipped among the favorite for the trophy in Qatar when the tournament gets underway this weekend.
The manner of the defeat left a bitter taste in the mouth of the coach of the Nigerian team Jose Peseiro, who has only won two of the nine matches since he was appointed as coach six months ago. He blamed today’s defeat on a shambolic first half display.
“I am sad. 0-4 is too much goals to concede. In the first half I think we didn’t start well. We didn’t show good organisation. We didn’t put pressure on the opponent. It’s true the opponent have too much quality”, he explained to the official television channel of the Nigeria Football Federation NFFTV.
“They create some super ideas with us. The first half wasn’t a good first half. Sometimes you could go in front, sometimes I believe you should change more of the game and tackle the space”, he further said.
He said the team had a better second half performance much like what he will love to see in future games, saying it could have been 1-2 if Emmanuel Dennis had scored from the spot or if other players took their chances before Portugal scored two more goals.
“In the second half much better. I think our team play on a second level. This level I want more from our team but it needs time and process in training.
” I think we show here in the second half against a big team that we can do much better. Of course if you have a chance of bringing the scores to 1-2 and you missed a penalty that’s very sad but I am not chiding my players. My players try to do the right thing, try to fight for us.
“This moment if you score 1-2 you can push for a draw but you didn’t score and after that you suffer two goals. I think we lose the balance in that moment. We have to improve, we must improve because we want to win the next AFCON”, he rounded up saying.
