Sierra Leone head coach John Keister has revealed the reason he believes his team lost to Nigeria in their 2023 AFCON qualifying Group A match on Thursday.
Jonathan Morsay put the Leone Stars ahead in the 11th minute of a game played behind closed doors at Abuja’s M.K.O Abiola Stadium. However, Nigeria fought back to win the game thanks to goals from Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen.
Despite the setback, Keister was upbeat in his post-match press conference, stating that “experience” was a deciding factor in the game.
“We were disappointed not to get something out of the game. We came here with a positive feeling. We felt we could go back home with a positive result.
“We have a lot of young players in the team and it is reflected in our performance. They took their eyes off the ball and allowed Victor Osimhen to score the second goal.
“In the end, the experience on both sides reflected in the final result. We could have another goal too. It was a performance we can be proud of,” Keister concluded.
The Leone Stars captain Steven Caulker echoed his manager’s statements, while also alleging that they showed too much respect to Nigeria.
“It’s a young team. We have a lot of youngsters in the team. We are building for the future,”Caulker stated this to the media following the game.
“Obviously we gave Nigeria too much respect and they scored two good goals against us. They have a lot of quality players in their team. We made a lot of mistakes, obviously we will correct them in subsequent games.”
