Batista: Eagles Disgraced Us, Argentina’s Captain Laments Night Of Worst Defeat

Argentina team witnessed an embarrassing moment of their life yesterday when they were humbled 1-4 by Nigeria’s Super Eagles in an international friendly played at the Abuja National Stadium.

It was a shock defeat for an Argentine side, who have boasted before the match that they were in Nigeria to teach the Eagles a football lesson of their life, but it was Sergio Batista and his men who were disgraced.

Argentina coach, Sergio Batista, told P.M.Sports through an interpreter after the encounter, “We didn’t know the match will end like this. It’s a disgrace that we lost in this scandalous manner. I tried to urge my team to wake up after the first goal, but the Nigerian team remained resolute in their determination to win the match. There is no doubt that the Eagles disgraced Argentina today (yesterday). The Eagles deserve to win because they played better than my team.”

Reacting to the loss, Captain of the Argentina, Pablo Zabaleta, lamented that his side had a worst night with the defeat, saying that the loss will be a stigma on Argentina football for some time to come. According to the Manchester United of England star, “I’m not happy about this loss because it happened when I was captain of our team for the first time. I think it’s our worst defeat as a football playing nation.”

Meanwhile, match hero, Ikechukwu Uche, is on Cloud 9 for making Nigeria proud in yesterday’s match. He said that the Most Valuable Player Award, MVP, given to him would motivate the entire Eagles squad to go all out to beat Ethiopia in weekend’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Addis Ababa.

Argentina’s domination of Nigeria changed in the match when Samson Siasia squad netted three first half goals through a brace from Zaragoza of Spain striker, Ikechukwu Uche, while Obinna Nsofor scored from the spot. However, Boselli Mauro scored a penalty goal for Argentina in the last minute to console his team

—Tunde Oyedele/Abuja