Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi
Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has blamed Nigeria's FIFA Confederations Cup crash to inability of his strikers to convert a number of gilt-edge chances they created against Spain on Sunday.
Nigeria were drubbed 3-0 by the world champions on the last day of Group B qualification in Fortazela, to bow out in Group B behind Spain and Uruguay, who advanced to the semi final.
''My players were too anxious in front of goal as we created a host of chances which we did not convert. We need to work on that and hopefully it is going to come quickly. In addition, we need to improve on our discipline. In the first half we were very composed, the positional play, the tactical play was there, but we lost our shape and was all over the place in the second half," Keshi said.
On an evening of entertaining football by both sides, the Super Eagles created a bag load of scoring chances, but could not score with Ideye Brown, Joseph Akpala, Ahmed Musa, Mikel Obi and Mohammed Gambo in position to put the ball in the net.
On the contrary, Spain were direct and clinical as they scored three of the chances they had through a Jordi Alba brace and a header by Fernado Torres.
Keshi, who also lamented that the absence of some of his stalwarts, said that the huge deficit inflicted on Nigeria by Spain was unfair and did not truly reflect the effort made by his side.
"Spain are a world class side that deserved to win but the goals they scored were not fair if you look at how the overall game was played. The 3-0 outcome is not suppose to be the final result," Keshi said.
Nigeria were without key players, including Emmanuel Emenike, Victor Moses and Ogenyi Onazi and Gabriel Ruben, who were nursing injuries and were not available for selection.
Weep not my coach, better luck next time.
Cued from ThisDay
