Jose Peseiro, Super Eagles’ Coach, has said that there are abundant of talents in the Super Eagles players that is worth harnessing.
He said the best in the players is yet to come as work to put the team in best performing shape is in progress. He also commended the energetic spirit and resilience of the players.
The coach spoke after Nigeria’s hard-earned victory of 3-2 over Sierra Leone in Liberia on Sunday, a game that tested their mettle in an ‘unfriendly pitch.’
“We are still working on the team and by the end of the exercise, hopefully, before the Africa Cup of Nations, people will start seeing the best of the team,” he said.
It was Victor Osimhen who gave Nigeria a 2-0 lead at the break. The Sierra Leone team charged up, equalized with a 2-2 drew as Mustapha Bundu and Augustus Kargbo scoring. Nigeria’s Kelechi Iheanacho – a dramatic fashion sealed the game in Nigeria’s favour to Cote d’Ivoire 2023.
Peseiro praised the team for their ‘never-give-up’ spirit, as they maintained a two-point gap to Guinea-Bissau at the top of the group.
“Our team qualified. It was a hard match. Our team never gave up. We fought till the end,” Peseiro said in the post-match press conference.
“Sierra Leone did a fantastic job. In the first half, we created seven to eight clear opportunities and only scored twice in the second half.
“But, you have to win. It was a very good match.
“Our team is the best in this group. I think we did a good job today against a good team. It was a very hard match. I am very happy with my players,” he said.
Following Nigeria’s victory over Sierra Leone, former World Footballer of the Year and the President of Liberia, George Opong Weah, acknowledged Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen, as the quintessential juggernaut difficult to contain.
Weah watched the game full time, as Osimhen scored two goals to give Nigeria a 3-2 victory over Sierra Leone.
Osimhen has had remarkable season in which he scored 25 league goals to steer SC Napoli to their first Italian Serie A title in 33 years, President Weah, the 1995 World, European and African Footballer of the Year had penned a personal letter to Osimhen asking him to keep working hard and breaking new grounds.
Weah was filled with excitement over Osimhen’s performance that he could not stop showering praises on him. “That is what I call a striker. Good positioning always. Very athletic and knows where to be each time the ball is coming. He is so strong and a fighter par excellence,” Weah said.
The Nigerian forward is now the leading scorer in the qualifying series with seven goals, and has now racked up an impressive tally of 17 goals in 25 matches for Nigeria at senior level.
Osimhen’s seven goals in this qualifying campaign include the one goal he scored against Sierra Leone in Abuja in June 2022 to eventually give Nigeria a 2-1 win and three points on the first day of the series, and four of the 10 goals against Sao Tome and Principe in Agadir, Morocco few days later, on a day Nigeria set a new international win-record.
Hosts, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Algeria, South Africa, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Egypt, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mali are the 14 countries that have qualified for Cote d’Ivoire 2023, with the remaining 10 to emerge in September. Nigeria will host group whipping boys, Sao Tome and Principe in a purely academic exercise in September.
