It’s been almost a week since the senior national team of Nigeria were beaten 1-2 by the host of the Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire in the final match of the tournament, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro said after the game that the host deserve to win lamenting the fact that his team failed to rise up to the occasion despite taking a 1-0 lead into the half time break.
Peseiro however defied lot of expectations by leading the team all the way to the final, with many people not convinced about how well they can go following a not too impressive run in the build up to the start of the tournament.
Despite that Portuguese journalist Freddie Pedro told OwnGoalNigeria.com that to Peseiro it’s nothing new when it comes to losing finals as he has lost three of the four he has played in his career as a coach.
” A good coach many will say but he carries a lot that many people can’t understand about him. Again since he went independent as a coach he has only won one of the four finals he has played as a coach, which was the 2013 League Cup where his team SC Braga defeated FC Porto 1-0 in the final”, he said.
” Aside that win it hasn’t been all smooth for him with his team Sporting Lisbon losing the UEFA Cup final (now the Europa League) to CSKA Moscow in 2005. In 2010 he lost in the final of the Gulf Cup while at the helm as coach of Saudi Arabia, they were beaten by Kuwait. Then while he was at Porto he lost the Portuguese Cup final to SC Braga. Now the AFCON loss with Nigeria. Safe to say he has a habit of losing in the final games when the expectations are really high”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
