The physical trainer of São Tomé and Principe, William Barboza, has attributed his team’s 6-0 loss against the Super Eagles, to lack of enough preparation for the match. He however acknowledged that only the Teranga Lions of Senegal is stronger than the Super Eagles in Africa.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria on Sunday concluded their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in an impressive fashion with a commanding 6-0 thrashing of Sao Tome and Principe in their final Group A match with Napoli striker, Victor Osimhen bagging a hat trick.
“The match today is not good for my team but we had only two training sessions which is not good enough for this match. Everyone knows that Nigeria is a strong team. The match was important for us because it was the last game of the qualifiers so, we did all we had to do but now, we’ve to focus on our future matches. After Senegal, Nigeria is the strongest team in Africa.” Barboza said.
It was another embarrassing outing for Sao Tome and Principe as they were whitewashed again by the Super Eagles. The Nigerians humiliated them 10-0 in the reverse fixture last year June in Morocco.
Sao Tomé player, Ricardo Cardoso also believes that the few training sessions they had before the match against Nigeria, contributed to the embarrassing result. He was however optimistic about the future of the Island nation’s team.
“Last time we played Nigeria, we couldn’t get our best players available. But now we’re building a new team with new players, and we’re working. We just had two training sessions to work with the new players. I can promise that in the long run, we’ll get there.
We are knowing each other now, uniting today and we showed that we can play together as well. We know that Nigeria is a good team with players in the Premier league. We’ve just one player in the first division. We are working and we’re still young, and in the future, we will be better.” an optimistic Cardozo concluded.
The 2023 AFCON will hold in Cote d’Ivoire in January 2024.
Leave a Reply