Alex Iwobi explains Super Eagles’ disappointing display against Guinea Bissau

By Saheed Afolabi

Nigeria midfielder Alex Iwobi has given reasons for his side’s poor performance in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Guinea Bissau in March.

The Super Eagles suffered a shocking 1-0 defeat to the Guineans at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja before Moses Simon’s penalty winner handed Jose Peseiro’s men a 1-0 triumph in the second leg in Bissau three days later.

And the Everton midfielder blamed the poor state of the Nigeria pitch as a major reason for the first leg loss, while claiming that a better pitch will have see the three-time African champions beat any team in the world.

“For example, our pitch, we don’t know if we’re going to have a nice pitch when we are playing. Obviously, we’ve got a new coach now and we played Sierra Leone, but we just about beat them 2-1, a difficult game,” Iwobi told BrillaFM.

“Then we played Sao Tome and we beat them 10-nil, but we played on a great pitch, A lot of us play in Europe now.

“We play on great pitches where it is easy to just manipulate the ball and play freely. If we have that in Nigeria, I feel like it will be difficult to beat us; I’m confident enough to say that not many teams can beat us.

“To start with for example, depending on a good pitch, if we have that I feel like we are unstoppable. I mean a pitch with level grass, no crops, just grass.”

The Super Eagles are top of the 2023 AFCON qualifying group with nine points from four matches and will square up with Sierra Leone in their next encounter in June.