‘We Didn’t Play Badly’ - Keshi

Nigeria’s Chief Coach, Stephen Keshi, has attributed the Super Eagles’ generally acknowledged dismal performance against Iran in the 2014 World Cup to frustrations and anxiety. He said,

“There was a lot of anxiety. My players tried to finish the game in the first 25 minutes, but when the goal didn’t come I think we pushed a bit too hard and frustrations starting to come in,” he said.
“We saw what happened with Costa Rica and with Holland and Spain, so in football you can never tell. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t.

“Just because we didn’t win people think we played badly. I don’t think we played badly, it was just that we didn’t score the goals we needed.”

The coach of the Iranian national team, Carlos Queiroz, on his part is glad his team was able to secure a point from the game against Nigeria.

“We come from a nation that doesn’t have the same facilities. We don’t have players from the biggest teams. Instead they showed they are honest players for 90 minutes with concentration and hard work so they deserve to celebrate.

“We cannot even play friendly games under the economic problems.
“I hope that after playing against a great team like Nigeria our players get the sympathy and respect they deserve.”

Queiroz who coached Portugal at South Africa 2010 also added that “We managed to frustrate the football of Nigeria for the first 20 minutes and then we had to stop their stars who began to take it upon themselves to make the game.

“We played a realistic game and we always had the intention to score a goal.
“Now I am so tired I just want to enjoy this point we have achieved. We will have time to think about our next game against Argentina in the coming days.”