Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search
Breaking News:
News  

Eguavoen blames lack of creative players for Super Eagles’ loss

By Alex Monye
16 July 2019   |   4:25 am
Former Super Eagles’ defender, Augustine Eguavoen has blamed Nigeria’s loss to Algeria in the semifinal of the ongoing 2019 African Cup of Nations to the team’s lack of an outstanding player.

Augustine Equavoen

Former Super Eagles’ defender, Augustine Eguavoen has blamed Nigeria’s loss to Algeria in the semifinal of the ongoing 2019 African Cup of Nations to the team’s lack of an outstanding player.

Speaking to The Guardian yesterday, Eguavoen said the Eagles in the past had outstanding players like Austin Okocha, and Kanu Nwankwo, who made the difference when it mattered most in a game.

According to Eguavoen, the present Eagles needed a player of special quality to take on the Algerians, who were highly tactical in the tie.

Eguavoen, who said the Eagles should have also concentrated on playing as a unit and fought hard to curtail the Algerians, also congratulated the team for getting to the semifinals, saying they have the potential to be world beaters if they took the right steps.

“The Eagles would have hard their way against Algeria assuming the team had an outstanding player. Riyadh Mahrez made the difference for Algeria because of his exceptional skills in free kicks.

“We don’t have such players now, but I believe with time the calibre of players like Okocha and Kanu will be discovered. The Eagles would have to work more as a team to overrun teams like Algeria.

“But the defeat notwithstanding, I congratulate the Eagles for giving their best in the Nations Cup. They gave a good account of themselves,” he said.

Eguavoen advised the Nigeria Football League (LMC) to look into the local league and make it more effective.

He said, “The Nigerian league at all levels need more publicity to excel. If there were no awareness of the league, outstanding players cannot be identified.

“I did not know that the Aiteo Cup was going on based on lack of proper publicity; this is also happening in the NNL.

“Nigeria has talents that can take the world by storm if our league was well publicised.”

0 Comments