Nigerian midfielder John Mikel Obi has said that the Super Eagles have nothing to be ashamed of following their defeat to France at the 2014 World Cup tournament in Brazil.
Les Blues defeated Nigeria 2-0 in Brasilia on Monday evening to progress to the quarter finals of the tournament. The first goal came through Paul Pogba in the 79th minute while Joseph Yobo scored an own-goal in the added minute of the game.
In a chat with Fifa.com after the game, Mikel said: “Honestly, I don’t think that we should be feeling bad right now.
“We’ve had a great tournament and today we showed the whole world just what we’re capable of, even when up against a great team.
“I think that we played really well from the start, right up until we conceded the opening goal.”
The Chelsea midfielder admitted that they lost hope after France got the first goal: “From that moment on, I’ll admit that we let our heads drop a bit.
“We couldn’t drag ourselves back into it, but none of that should take the shine off our performance.”
The midfielder said that his team were more than a match for France but believes that key mistakes in defence cost them.
“We were very well-organised. We knew exactly what we needed to do in defence against a strong team like France and, on top of that, whenever we had the ball we weren’t afraid to attack.
“We even had good chances to go in front ourselves. We got so much right, but mistakes do happen. What else can we say? We need to forget it and move on,” he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment