Jose Peseiro believes Nigeria needs more time to find their top gear after they ground out a 2-1 win over Sierra Leone on Thursday to begin their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification campaign. Following losses to Mexico and Ecuador, this was Peseiro’s third game in charge and his first victory.
Nigeria went behind early on in the Group A encounter against the Leone Stars, but came back to win thanks to goals from Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen. The visitors had taken the lead through Jonathan Morsay’s 11th minute goal.
In a game played behind closed doors at the Abuja National Stadium, the Super Eagles were unable to turn their second half dominance into goals and were nervous near the end as Sierra Leone searched for an equalizer.
“We created a lot of scoring chances, we could have won with a bigger margin, but the team needs more time and we must work,” Peseiro said at full-time.
However, the Portuguese insisted that Nigeria was the better side and deserved the win. He said:
“We were better than Sierra Leone in this game, we deserve to win. We changed the setup in the second half, I think it was only the last 10 minutes our opponent had some good moments.”
On Monday, the Super Eagles will play Sao Tome and Principe in their second qualifying match at the Adrar Stadium in Morocco.
