Super Eagles head coach, José Peseiro, has disclosed that it is not easy to play for Nigeria national team noting that it is a heavy jersey to wear.
Peseiro whose contract with the NFF expired on Thursday, disclosed this in a interview with Goal.com while talking about the pressure of managing Nigeria’s national team and his experience at the last Africa Cup of Nations held in Cote D’ivoire.
“It’s not easy playing for the Super Eagles. It’s a heavy jersey to wear. Not like the others. You have 200 million Nigerians behind you. And who put pressure on you and complain. Sometimes they also use bad terms when talking about players. Against me too, but I know how to manage. On the other hand, when it comes to the players, it upsets me. Because the players feel it and they suffer from it,” he said.
He identified two reasons while the Super Eagles could not win the AFCON to include pressure adding that the team was feverish even at 1-0 up
He said, “There are two things. First there is the fact that Ivory Coast reached the final of the competition having avoided the worst each time. They were almost eliminated three times. In the final, they were more liberated. They weren’t under as much pressure as at the start of the competition. Second thing, I think the energy there was that day in the stadium touched us. If I had to rate our performance, it was perhaps our worst game. In previous matches, we have always been in control and we have created a lot of opportunities. But in this match, even at 1-0 for us, we were feverish. The atmosphere penalised my players. We didn’t have the same abilities. There were too many lost balls. If I had to analyse, I would say that two or three of my players played at their true level. They wanted to do their best, but they couldn’t.”
When asked how he was able to manage pressure from Nigeria which is regarded as the most populous country in Africa,
“For me, considering my age and the experience I have, it’s not that difficult. I prepare in advance. I knew it. The media and social networks can have a positive side for our lives, but sometimes it is negative. But we have to be understandable. And also accept it, because we can’t change anything. Sometimes it wrongly criticizes us and it’s not pleasant, and it’s not only in football that we see this. But I can bear it. I never respond to criticism or fake news,” Peseiro said.
Speaking on how Nigeria was able to reached the final of the tournament, the Portuguese said, “From the first day when the president of the federation called on me and I took a look at this team and the matches they played, I told everyone that I want to win the next AFCON because I was certain that we could do it. I believed it, my staff believed it, my players too, but not the people outside. And I’m happy because we did a fantastic job reaching the final. It has been shown that Nigeria still belongs to the best nations on the continent. And who wants to fight for trophies. On the other hand, I’m also sad because we lost.”
“After the final, I was definitely sad. Because we are competitors and as soon as I took charge of this team, I wanted to win this tournament. We wanted to win it. During my first meeting with the players, which I did in the United States for my first match, I told them during my presentation that I came here to win the next AFCON. And since we didn’t manage to do it, I can’t be happy.
“But on the other hand, when I saw the way the Nigerian people and government welcomed us when we returned to Abuja after the AFCON, I could only be proud of what we achieved. People were satisfied and they thanked us. Everyone in the streets, and even the media, made us understand that they were happy with us. And that’s a good feeling. They saw our matches and they know what we did. We fought until the end and against the very big selections.
“We were not favorites at the start, unlike Ivory Coast or Senegal. And teams like Egypt, Algeria, Ghana and Cameroon, with very rich squads, came out quite early. We reached the final. So I am satisfied. But the satisfaction is not complete because we wanted to win.”
Noting that it was a fantastic experience based on the fact that it was his first AFCON, Peseiro expressed confidence that if another final was played a week later, they would have won it because many players have never had the experience of a AFCON final.
“14 of our players have never played in a AFCON final phase. While the Ivorians had experienced players. We tried to playI’ down the event, trying to forget the pressure and the responsibilities that weighed on our shoulders, but it wasn’t enough,” he added
