10th October, 2011
Nigeria coach Samson Siasia says his team deserve all the insults thrown their way by fans after failing to qualify for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The Super Eagles gave up a late goal to draw 2-2 with Guinea and miss out on qualification, with fan abuse trailing them since.
“We deserve all the insults we are getting. In the end, we failed to qualify and that hurt the fans, so they have a right to be angry,” Siasia said.
“We are also hurt, because as much as the fans wanted to see us at the Nations Cup, it pains us more than it pains them. We have young players who were looking forward to their first Nations Cup. We have experienced ones who wanted to return there to challenge again.
“We have found it hard to sleep because everyone is thinking about what happened.”
But Siasia said that the team can take comfort from the progress that has been made in a short time
“In the few months we have been here, the team have grown younger, we are tactically stronger, we play the ball quicker than before, we create more than seven chances in every game and we have not failed to score more than two goals. Except for the friendly against Argentina.
“So this team are doing well. It was just a communication problem at the end,” he said.