The opening day loss suffered by Nigeria at the World Cup against Croatia has led to lot of talks about the tactics used by the Nigerians to prosecute the game in Kaliningrad.
Croatia defeated Nigeria 2-0 with an own goal from Oghenekaro Etebo and a penalty from Luka Modric condemning the Super Eagles to defeat and also bottom of their group.
One of the players who performed below par in the game was striker Odion Ighalo, who was played upfront as the lone striker in the 4-2-3-1 formation used by Nigeria in the game.
Ighalo failed to click in the role and extended his goal drought for Nigeria to seven with the last goal he scored coming in the World Cup 2018 Qualifiers against Cameroon last year.
“It’s difficult sometimes playing alone upfront against four or five defenders, but the coach has the final say, not me”, he said in defense of his poor performance in the game.
The Chanchung Yatai forward further explained that the inability of the Super Eagles to carve out chances was primarily the reason why they struggled and refused to blame the referee despite the penalty awarded to Croatia.
“We did not create enough chances going forward and to score. We don’t have to blame the referee. Croatia are a great team and they did well.You see that the first was an own goal and the second a penalty.We did our best in that game but we must correct the mistakes from the last game.”
Samuel Thompson
