Head coach of Madagascar Corentin Martins has explained why his team threw away a one goal lead to lose 1-2 to the senior national team of Nigeria in their opening game in the 2027 AFCON qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Madagascar took an early lead but were pegged back by the duo of George Ilenikhena and Moses Usor who sealed the win for Nigeria with goals in the 45th and 65th minute respectively.
Explaining the defeat at the post match conference, the coach blamed it on the quality of the Nigerian team and also said his team tired out in the second half.
” This defeat is hard to take for me and my players because we didn’t deserve to lose in the manner that we did. We had a chance of going 2-1 up but didn’t take it”, he said.
” It’s a learning curve for me and my players who are not at the level of the Nigerian players, who are used to playing big games because they play for top teams in top leagues.
” In the second half, our energy level dropped and with the quality of the Nigerian team they punished us. We will take the lessons learnt and be better in our subsequent games in the qualifiers”, he said.
