Renowned Nigerian former players, Adokiye Amiesimaka, Waidi Akanni and other fans have expressed disappointment with the Super Eagles’ draw with the Pharaohs of Egypt in a 2017 AFCON qualifier in Kaduna.
The Super Eagles scored the opener through Oghenekaro Etebo in the 59th minute before Egypt’s Mohammed Salah equalised in the 90th minute in the match played on Friday at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium.
Amiesimaka said: “I’m not surprised that we lost, I would have been shocked if we won, we don’t have the caliber of players that can deliver.
“I only pity Samson Siasia because now the administrators will have the moral justification to bring in a foreign coach.
“Let them bring José Mourinho and Arsene Wenger but together, we lack the structure, so we can’t win.
“Nigerians keep indulging in wishful thinking; we fail to always ask the right questions,’’ he said.
Waidi Akanni a former U-17 national team player said: “I was there in Kaduna, they lost concentration for reasons I don’t know, it’s so unfortunate.
“The players got carried away and we paid dearly for it, so sad we gave the match away’’.
For Etim Esim, it was disappointing that the team conceded a goal few minutes to the end of the match.
He urged the Samson Siasia-led technical crew to ensure that the team did not lose focus in the next encounter against their Egyptian opponents.
“Honestly, it is really painful that we could not maintain the 1-0 scoreline against Egypt.
“ Every minute in a match is crucial but it’s unfortunate that our boys lost concentration and paid the price.
“The coach should ensure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes in Alexandra in the second leg of the match,’’ he said.
Falade Oyekan, a board member of the Lagos State Football Association, urged the players to put the defeat behind them and concentrate on the second leg encounter in four days.
“The deed has already been done and all we need and expect from the Super Eagles is full concentration against their opponents.
“Nothing is impossible in football, we can defeat the Egyptians in their home soil,’’ he said.
In Calabar the fans also expressed disappointment with the result, saying the team did not play cohesively in the match which was a must win for Nigeria.
A student, Maxwell Kalu, said he was not satisfied with the performance of the team, adding that the Eagles lacked pace and seriousness.
He said that there was no cohesion among the players which gave the Egyptians the opportunity to run down the lines each time they had the ball.
“I did not really enjoy the match. There was really nothing from Super Eagles, especially in the first half.
“They did not sparkle at all. More work needs to be done on the team,’’ he said.
Another, Anthony Mathew, said that the Eagles defence was unserious and uncoordinated.
“Our defence was very porous. I was very afraid each time the Egyptians came close to our defence,’’ he said.
Mathew called on the coaching crew to shop for more players for the team’s defence.
However, Michael Abang, commended the team for their effort saying that it was a good game.
“In my opinion, it was a fair result and let’s hope what happens in Egypt will be in our favour,’’ he said.
Also in Akure, Dele Ologbese, Vice-Chairman, Ondo State Football Association, said the Super Eagles could still qualify in spite of the home draw.
Ologbese said that the result should not be discouraging to the players and supporters of the team.
“I know from the onset that if the match was going to be clumsy, they will want to spring surprises, and they did.
“They (Egypt) have not qualified in the last three editions of the tournament, we can still qualify, and anything can happen in Egypt.
“We can spring a surprise too in Egypt. Football is not mathematics,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, Siasia has said his team would now be aiming to beat the Pharaohs of Egypt when both teams meet on Tuesday.
Siasia who said this during a post-match briefing at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, following his team’s 1-1 draw with the Pharaohs, said his team could win the return leg match.
The return leg match of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Qualifying Group G fixture holds in Alexandria on Tuesday.
The Eagles handler, however, said the team’s technical crew would correct the lapses noticed in the match in Kaduna before the reverse fixture in Alexandria on Tuesday.
He said the Eagles played well but the technical crew needed to make some corrections before their next match in Egypt.
“We will try to see what went wrong and do a proper check before playing our next match so that we can win in Egypt.
“The players did well but I don’t know what went wrong in the last three minutes when the Egyptians equalised. That is football for you.
“A game can end up in a draw or loss even when you play well. However, we should have been marking in the last three minutes, but it turned out the other way.
“With the outcome of the match, we will try our best to win in Egypt, because in football everything is possible.
“We cannot move backwards but forward. We are going to pull ourselves together and see how we are going to win the match,’’ Siasia said.
He pointed out that his players were tactically better than the Egyptians in the game for the greater part of the encounter.
