Nigeria need improvement to win Afcon – Jose Peseiro

By Olu Dare

Nigeria coach Jose Peseiro said the Super Eagles have to improve make their ambition of winning Afcon a reality after loss to Portugal on Thursday.

The Super Eagles lost 4-0 against A Selecao on Thursday night in friendly game staged in Lisbon. The African nation started the game on a low note and despite improving later, they could not stop Bruno Fernandes from scoring a brace while Goncalo Ramos and Joao Mario scored once each.

Emmanuel Dennis missed a penalty for the West Africa side and Pesseiro has admitted his team will have to improve to stand a chance of winning the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

“Losing 4-0 was too much, we didn’t start well in the first half, we didn’t show good organisation and we didn’t pressure the opponent. It’s true the opponent has too much quality but like I said the first half was not good but the second half was much better,” Peseiro told NFF TV.

“I believe in the second half we showed we can do better, we missed a penalty and conceded two more goals. We must improve because we want to win the next Afcon.

“We need to defend our players. Which player has not missed a penalty before? Any player can miss a penalty so Emmanuel Dennis has my support.”

Nigeria have now lost their last three games, conceding eight goals in the process and scoring just one.

Having seen where the team’s weakness is, Pesseiro has until March, when the next Afcon qualifiers are, to sort out some of their problems.

In the 2021 Afcon, the team was eliminated in the Round of 16 by Tunisia despite going through the group stage unbeaten.

Nigeria are leading Group A with maximum points from the two matches they have played so far in the 2023 qualifiers.