Head coach of Nigeria, Salisu Yusuf, has said that the Super Eagles took Sunday’s quarter-final game against the Palancas Negras of Angola seriously right from the word go.
Speaking at a post-match conference after Nigeria came from behind to snatch a 2-1 victory at the ongoing 5th African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Morocco, Yusuf said the Angolans gave them a fight.
“We never underestimated Angola, they played good football and are a good team but the important thing was to win and we won,” he told cafonline.com.
“When we were trailing the goal, I only tried to psyche up the players not to lose hope and continue to press for an equaliser which eventually came at the dot of time. If you scream at the players, they would scream at you too and that does not help matters.
“Today’s game was the most difficult for us in the tournament as we fought for 90 minutes against a good team. We never lost faith in our players because we were creating chances and the more you do that the chances of scoring are higher.”
The former Enyimba tactician lauded the scorer of the equaliser, Tony Okpotu for living up to his expectations.
“I’m so confident about Anthony Okpotu and we believe in him and he has been scoring despite missing some chances, but he will be much better in the coming matches,” Yusuf added.
The reigning Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) goal king, Okpotu netted Nigeria’s equaliser in the 92nd minute, while Gabriel Ikechukwu scored the winner during extra-time, 108th minute.
