Peseiro fumes at poor officiating

Following the Super Eagle loss to the Desert Foxes of Algeria in Oran on Tuesday night in an international friendly, head coach Jose Peseiro blamed the referees for the defeat. The Portuguese tactician who took over Super Eagles job in May 2022 commended his team for playing to instructions.

“We showed our qualities and our collective job also, I think we could have beaten Algeria, of course, it was a hard match and because Algeria is a good team, but my players tried to do what we asked them, what we do in practice.

“I am very sad because we lost, I don’t like losing matches, the main point is that I am very happy with what my players did on the pitch.

“They played to the maximum and I would have liked to put everybody in the field like the test match against Algeria B but I could not because the rules don’t allow that.

“We did a very good job, we shot more on the opponent, and the opponent created opportunities, but our team created more opportunities than Algeria.

“Everybody makes mistakes, like me or the players, but the first mistake and the big mistake was our second clear goal, but the referee said it was offside, but that was not an offside goal and also the penalty.”

Terem Moffi gave Nigeria the lead in the first half, but a controversial penalty converted by Riyad Mahrez ended the first half in a 1-1 draw. Youcef Atal completed a comeback for the Algerians in the 62 minutes that left the Super Eagles to a narrow 2-1 defeat.

The defeat comes four days after Algeria team B-side held the Super Eagles to a 2-2 draw.