Rangers of Scotland and Nigeria international midfielder Joe Aribo has given reasons why the senior national team of Nigeria weren’t at their best in the 2-1 win over Sierra Leone.

Nigeria started their campaign in the 2023 qualifiers on a winning note but the performance wasn’t the best as not only did they have to come from the back, they were also made to suffer for the win in the final ten minutes of the game.

Aribo who was presented by the team for the post match conference alongside Jose Peseiro explained that at this stage winning is more crucial, he however gave reasons why they didn’t play as expected.

“I think it’s very important that we got off to a winning start in our first game because we want to take the momentum into the next game on Tuesday. So, kick-starting our campaign on a high and getting all three-points in our kitty was very crucial,” he said at the presser witnessed by OwnGoalNigeria.com.

“We know ourselves. We could have played better, but I think we will improve with the more games we play. It’s our first game together as a group with the new coach, but the team is going to improve as we continue to play together.

“We are working with new tactics and philosophy, so it is a gradual process.  We are definitely going to get better and stronger in the games to come,” he concluded.

The senior national team of Nigeria returned to winning ways coming from behind to beat Sierra Leone 2-1 in their first 2023 AFCON qualifiers game played at the Moshood Abiola Stadium.

OwnGoalNigeria.com senior editor, Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman rates the players on parade for Nigeria.

Francis Uzoho – Couldn’t do anything about the goal he conceded. He however was lucky not to have conceded twice. Didn’t quite inspire confidence as it seems he still has the hangover of the howler against Ghana. An improved showing however…..6/10

Ola Aina – Started the game very well and looked very composed and assured on the ball. He however ran out of stem very early into the second half and was substituted due to fatigue…..6/10

Calvin Bassey – Solid performance from the Rangers defender. Did his job very well in defence and also delivered some telling balls when he joined the attack. Slowly becoming one of the key men of the team…..7.5/10

William Troost Ekong- Came out top in several one on duels but not assured in his movements and also distribution. Can be balmed for the goal scored by the visitors. He still leads the team with his positive energy. They will be hoping that the injury which led to his substitution isn’t severe enough to rule him out of the game against Sao Tome and Principe…..6.5/10

Semi Ajayi – Distributed the ball nicely from the back and looked very much at home in aerial duels. Found it really hard to get going due to the poor pitch. Should have done better though with a situation in the second half which almost led to a goal for the visitors…..6/10

Joe Aribo- Not one of his best days even though he tried to make things happen at both ends of the pitch. Covered lot of ground and won possession back. Didn’t however carry a threat in attack……6.5/10

Alex Iwobi- Came alive following the introduction of Oghenekaro Etebo. Took his goal with the calmness of a top player and did really well in helping the transition from defence to attack……7/10

Samuel Chukwueze – He had a game to forget. Missed a sitter which looks easier to score than miss. Wasteful with his decision making in crucial period and didn’t look like a player who is high on confidence……5/10

Moses Simon- Man of the match display from the Nantes wide man. Bagged two assists and looked lively all through. Appears to have found some level of understanding with Bassey at left back……8/10

Sadiq Umar- Unlucky to be subbed off. Was a threat with his body frame. Set up goal scoring chances for Osimhen twice. Unlucky to be yanked off at half time due to tactical reasons……6/10

Victor Osimhen – Fought for every ball that came into the box. Put his body where it hurts and took his goal really well. Could have gotten a couple of goals today as well. Didn’t have a very good second half by his standard……7/10

Substitutes:

Oghenekaro Etebo- He brought control to the midfield before his intensity and level dropped in the final ten minutes of the game. Looked short of fitness prolly due to lack of game time in the just concluded season……6/10

The senior national team of Nigeria returned to winning ways coming from behind to beat Sierra Leone 2-1 in their first 2023 AFCON qualifiers game played at the Moshood Abiola Stadium.

Jonathan Morsey gave Sierra Leone a shock lead when he finished a sweeping counter attackove with a well placed header past Francis Uzoho in goal for Nigeria. Super Eagles responded almost immediately.

A quick inter change of passes between Moses Simon and Calvin Bassey ended with Simon placing a low pass to Alex Iwobi who colly slot home to draw Nigeria level.

Ten minutes later, Simon was at it again, this time around he cushioned a cross from Ola Aina onto the path of Victor Osimhen to put Nigeria ahead.

The head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has revealed the starting lineup for his first competitive game in charge of the team which is against Sierra Leone, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.

Peseiro stuck with the 4-4-2 formation that he used in the last friendly game against Ecuador but made four changes by introducing Ola Aina, Sadiq Umar and Victor Osimhen for the quartet of Chidozie Awaziem, Faisal Sani, Terem Moffi and Cyriel Dessers.

As first reported by this portal, the coach has settled for the duo of Osimhen and Sadiq in attack with Moses Simon and Simon Chukwueze operating from the flanks . Joe Aribo and Alex Iwobi will anchor the midfield.

The back four is made of William Troost Ekong, Semi Ajayi, Ola Aina and Calvin Bassey. The quartet that finished the 0-1 loss to Ecuador. Francis Uzoho keeps his place in goal.

Starting XI: Francis Uzoho, Ola Aina, Calvin Bassey, Joseph Aribo, William Ekong, Semi Ajayi, Samuel Chukwueze, Sadiq Umar, Victor Osimhen, Alex Iwobi, Moses Simon.

Nigeria international striker Sadiq Umar has commit his immediate club future to newly promoted La Liga side Almeria despite offers from other teams.

Sadiq who was once again top scorer for Almeria for the second consecutive season in his two years stay at the club has been widely tipped to leave Almeria before the start of next season.

Heavily linked with a move to Real Betis, Sadiq in an exclusive chat with OwnGoalNigeria.com at the camp of the Super Eagles said he indeed had the chance to leave but he wants to experience top flight football with Almeria.

” Playing in the La Liga is a dream come true for me and I want to do it with Almeria. A place where I have found love and also the trust of the coaches. I have offers elsewhere and it was very tempting but I will 100 percent stay with Almeria”, he told OwnGoalNigeria.com.

For now, the lanky forward says he has his mind on representing Nigeria in the upcoming 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers games against Sierra Leone today and Sao Tome and Principe on the 13th.

” It’s national team football first then we talk about how it will be with Almeria next season. For now my mind is on getting back to back wins against Sierra Leone and later Sao Tome and Principe and Insha Allah we will get both”, he stated.

The newly appointed coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has explained what he thought made the senior national team of Nigeria lost their round of 16 game at the Africa Cup of Nations 0-1 to Tunisia.

Peseiro speaking at the media conference ahead of today’s AFCON 2023 qualifiers against Sierra Leone said the Nigerian team was the better them at the AFCON but lost due to a situation that was out of their hands.

He said the red card to Alex Iwobi was not deserved and it played a role in the final outcome of the game. He said even with one man down , the Nigerian team still played better than Tunisia. Simply put he felt poor officiating was partly the reason why the team lost.

“In the last AFCON I think our team was the best there but bad luck in that moment. That crazy red card. The VAR discovered in this moment made a red card for nothing because even against Tunisia”, he said.

”The team was better than Tunisia even with ten men they created enough opportunity to score and win the match. Of course you the people, the fans sometimes you can not see that because of the emotion close your eyes but for me I saw in that moment. I don’t speak about the match against Ghana but against Tunisia”, he stated.

The captain of the senior national team of Sierra Leone Steven Caulker has explained why he switched nationality from England to Sierra Leone depsite playing for the former at senior international level.

Despite playing for England at several youth levels and making the step up to the main team, Caulker last year accepted a call up to represent the Lone stars and was a part of the team for the Africa Cup of Nations which was their first appearance in 25 years.

Explaining his decision, the 30 year old while responding to a question from OwnGoalNigeria.com senior editor Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman said it was a very easy decision owing to his ties with the country of his grand father.

He said he always felt Sierra Leone is a part of his life and when he was contacted to play for the country for the first time last year, he felt it was the right thing to do as he last played for England ten years ago. A timely message players of Nigerian descent who fancy playing for England ahead of Nigeria.

“The transition was actually quite smooth. It just about timing I haven’t been asked to play for Sierra Leone until last year so when the call came in it was phone call originally from the football association. Read through their interest. I was told Sierra Leone were interested in bringing me inside and I have some conversation with John and the FA President”, he explained .

“I felt it was the right step for me. I always felt Sierra Leone is a part of my life , I have been there and built schools. I had a connection to the country from my grand dad so when I was asked to come and play and represent them it felt like the right thing to do.

“I played for England ten years ago so it’s a distant memory for me and coming to Africa to play here is very different as the coach mentioned from Europe to here is completely different football but I enjoy it here because we play with a lot of passion, a lot of spirit inside our camp. I feel like we playing for the right reasons. It was nice to see the joy we brought to the nation during the AFCON was special to me. I hope to build on that connection”, he concluded.

The main reason why Leicester City forward Kelechi Iheanacho isn’t in the sqaud of the senior national team of Nigeria for today’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers has been made known to OwnGoalNigeria.com.

Iheanacho’s name was conspicuously missing from the list of players for the two friendly games against Mexico and Ecuador respectively. He still wasn’t considered when the coach rejigged the squad for today’s AFCON 2023 qualifiers against Sierra Leone.

His omission led to talks of a possible bleak future for the left footed forward in the senior national team of Nigeria under new coach Jose Peseiro but we found out it’s far from it as adminstrative issues kept him out of the team.

We gathered he is due for UK citizenship and subsequently submitted his Nigerian passport for the process around same time it was needed for the trip to the United States of America and Nigeria for the qualifiers.

He is expected to be back in the team once the process is completed. A team source exclusively revealed to this portal on the condition of anonymity insisting that Peseiro is aware of the reason and ready to call him up for future games.

The captain of the senior national team of Nigeria Ahmed Musa says the pressure of playing for the senior national team of Nigeria weighs heavily on young players coming into the team.

Musa made this known while responding to questions from journalist at the pre match conference ahead of tomorrow’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers game against Sierra Leone in Abuja.

He said the pressure most times kills the morale of young players calling on the fans and the media not to pressure the coaches into playing young players who are sometimes not ready to cope with the pressure.

” I have to say something. Which is the pressure we put on young players to start playing for the senior national team of Nigeria. It’s a gradual process just like me I started by playing ten to fifteen minutes before getting to the level where I am now”, he explained.

” The Super Eagles is not U20, U23 or U17 where players can be said to be growing. The pressure of delivering instantly gets to these young players especially when they fail to deliver and get attack from all corners. We have to be patient with them because as young players they need time to adapt and get used to the pressure” he concluded.

The coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro has given his take on inviting players from the Nigeria Professional Football League to be a part of his team.

Peseiro called up eight players from teams in the Nigeria Professional Football League for his first two games as coach of the team but ahead of his first competitive game against Sierra Leone tomorrow, only two were listed in the sqaud.

Asked if he dropped the rest due to lack of quality, the Portuguese coach said it’s about getting the right players who can help the team get the desired results after the AFCON disappointment and the failure to qualify for the World Cup.

He said he will call up home based players if he watches them and see that they have what it takes to improve his team. He also made it clear that the senior national team isn’t for players development rather for players who are at the peak of their game.

On Home Based Players

You know in the senior national team it’s not possible you improve individual performance of players. It’s not our work, it’s not our job. We can of course, if I put some player, young player in our team if they do well, so he can grow up in his career. What I can do is to improve our team. In five to six days you can not improve the fitness of one player. You can not improve the technical, the tactical. We don’t have too much time for that.

You can of course around two years if you repeat the same organization. The same talent, the same situation. The same mode of physical process you can improve them but more of it is that you can improve in 90 percent collective tactics. For that I need to choose we’ll depending on the kind of match. This guy can play in that position, this guy cam play in the other position. We don’t have a program to improve the players but we have a program to improve the national team because I believe with the quality of this player what they need is organization.  They need to know what I want to do on the pitch. They come from different teams, different situations, different ideas. They come from all over the world. When they come here , we need to build one system which they feel comfortable.

We need to see because we want to do our job. We want to introduce some new players not just local players , it’s step by step but the problem of our national team isn’t players of quality, that is wrong. It’s possible we call to the team players of quality.

For that I will be here to see the match or my assistant but you have players in 22, 23 or 24 here who can play here for the next ten years which is big quality. Why not this moment is because national team is about result. We didn’t go to the World Cup, we didn’t win the last AFCON. These players are not good? For me no. I came not because I didn’t see the local players but I see the national team players. I see the players who belong to the national team now. Of course like in life, one will go, some players will go and other players will come but our best players belong to outside the country & if we want more, we will invite.