Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh says his team deserved the three points in the CHAN Group C game against Tunisia on Friday.
Oliseh said after the game: “No! It is not a fair result. Because if you look at the physiognomy of the game, we dominated everything, we had more possession, we dictated the tempo of the game. We deserved more.”
On the defence, which seemed to have struggled much of the match, Oliseh said focus should not be on that.
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“It’s not a question of not getting the balance in the defence line but a question of not wanting my country to lose. Please let’s not deliberate on that too much. The boys tried their best. There are certain players that give problems to certain other players. And I felt that Ahmed Akaichi (of Tunisia) was giving some problems to us, so I had to act,” he said.
He said his substitutions were meant to give Nigeria an offensive edge in the second half.
“We tried to see the players to adapt for 45 minutes and since we want to go on the offensive in the second half, and that we wanted to win the game, I brought in a player that could participate more in the ball construction. So, that’s what we did. We didn’t take Eze out because he wasn’t playing well, we took him out because we wanted to play another style. And you saw it brought us the goal,” he explained.
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He was impressed with his players bonding and fast adaptation.
“You should expect what you have always expected, that our players go out and try to force the result. But then again I think I am very proud of my players with the way they played today. Like the Tunisian coach was asking me, Have you had this team for like a year? I said no. It’s our home-based. It’s flattering when you hear somebody say things like that,” he said.
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