The interim coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Finidi George will take charge of the team later this month in two friendly games against Ghana and Mali respectively, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
As we exclusively reported, the coach of Enyimba has been handed the chance to lead the team in both friendly games, following the expiration of the contract of Jose Peseiro at the end of last month. Finidi was his assistant for the 18 months he was in charge of the team.
Nigeria will take on Ghana on the 22nd of March before squaring up against Mali four days later in the Moroccan city of Marrakech. The game is meant to help the team who finished second at the recently concluded Africa Cup of Nations regroup ahead of the resumption of the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
Finidi dropped his idea on how the team will likely approach both games, while giving his analysis of why the team crumbled in the final of the AFCON losing 1-2 to the host Cote d’Ivoire. He spoke more on upgrading the style of play to reflect with the game as it changes.
“The formation has to be upgraded at every given time. Every time you are in a tournament or score a goal, you try to do something else. We have to upgrade what we have done so far,” Finidi said while explaining the loss in the AFCON final.
He went further to say, “I think it is a lesson. After our goal, we defended too deep. Moving forward, we have to push that formation. We have to push it a little bit further instead of going behind. We need to go a little bit further so we don’t struggle to win games. That’s what the coach will do. He saw it, too. So we have to be better on that.”
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
