Super Eagles Coach, Peseiro, Set For First Match In Nigeria

The Super Eagles on Thursday will kick off their campaign to qualify for the 2023 Nations Cup under new coach Jose Peseiro, who lost his first two matches, which were friendlies.

The match against Sierra Leone in Abuja will be Peseiro’s competitive debut.

Nigeria will not be in Qatar in November which seems a watershed moment and a time to start again for many of the players in the Super Eagles squad.

Cyriel Dessers is making a comeback to the team while William Troost Ekong, Alex Iwobi, and Ola Aina said Thursday should mark a new start.

“Really painful because a big football nation like Nigeria always has to be at the World Cup,” said Dessers, who, if he plays against Sierra Leone, will win his fourth cap.

“And not only us feel like that. I think the whole world feels like that. And for sure Argentina will miss their traditional game against Nigeria (laughs).

“But it is a shame actually because if you look at the quality that is in the group, it is a shame we are not going to the World Cup.”

Dessers scored his first goal for the Eagles in the 2-1 loss to Mexico, which was Peseiro’s first match in charge but the 27-year-old believes the manager has made a good start.

“Focus is on ourselves and the next AFCON  should be our goal. The preparation starts now with a new coach and I think that was a good start already. There is a lot of quality in the group and we can still improve and we will be a really difficult team to beat.

For Ekong, it has “been a difficult year”. The Watford defender also revealed he feels the same emotion as most Nigerians-upset, about missing out on Qatar 2022, “but that has to be in the past now.”

For Ola Aina, “It is devastating. It is not ideal.”

“We normally qualify for these types of things,” Aina continued, “and yes it is heartbreaking for the nation, for me personally. I have missed out on going to a World Cup; as a whole, it is a disappointing thing.”

Ekong is banking on making Thursday a new beginning for the team as they start another journey. “I think it will be a great way to kick off something good for the future. “We can’t change (the past) so we are trying to look forward now with a new coach.”

Playing under Peseiro is “new and fresh”, according to Aina while Alex Iwobi says he has grown used to the change of managers-even at the club level.

“Even in my career, I have had like five different coaches,” quipped Iwobi when he was asked about Peseiro. “So I am used to chomping and changing. Whenever a new manager comes in, it’s a new start, a new beginning so we just have to go again.”

Iwobi added: “Everyone is starting afresh and so he is so hopefully, we can buy into his ideas like we have done so far. At the end of the day, we are here to fight for our country before anything else.”

What would playing in an empty stadium mean to the team? Ekong says it will spur the team to ‘put on a show’.