Former Super Eagles skipper, Sunday Oliseh, believes the Eagles lost two points due to their awful reaction to the sending off of Efe Ambrose in their opening game of 2013 AFCON against Stallions of Burkina Faso last night.
The 10-man Eagles were held to a 1-1 draw after Emmanuel Emenike had opened the scoring after 23 minutes as they were pegged back with barely the last kick of the game
And Oliseh, a pundit for Supersports, opined that the players were the architect of their misfortune for not taking care of the midfield after going down to ten men.
"We lost two points because of our reaction to the red card incident," the 1994 Nations Cup winner with the Eagles began.
"It's so painful the manner we made them to come into the game because we helped them by our reaction."
"We did not react the right way and we didn't coordinate the midfield very well and that's the price you pay for rebuilding every time without continuity."
"The Eagles were the architect of their own misfortune.. We were a man down and we kept playing as if we were playing eleven against eleven. The Eagles should have shut the game down by shoring up their midfield. The Stallions weren't dangerous until the second half and that was when they took the game to us."He further added that Algerian referee Mohamed Benouza was right to have sent Efe Ambrose off for a second bookable offence in the second half.
"It was a deserved red card because according to the law of the game, you don't rush into an attacker. It looks harsh but he was right," he added.
Ahead of the Eagles next game against reigning champions Zambia, Oliseh was optimistic that the team will win their next game to qualify for the next round.
"Of course, we will win against Zambia and that 'll be unfortunate for my Zambian friends."
"But my fear is that the game against Zambia will bring out the best in them since we all have a point each in the group," he concluded.
Comments
Post a Comment