The Interview Editors
Congratulations on Super Eagles’ victory against South Africa; will you say the loss against the same team in the first game of the qualifiers served as the motivating factor for this victory?
The loss to South Africa in Uyo helped us change a lot of things and also refocus. We were able to beat Cameroon 4-0 during the World Cup qualifiers and have only lost to African opposition twice since then.
I have to say thank you to Stuart Baxter for that. We had a plan and we knew South Africa would find it hard to replicate their performance against Egypt, so we had a slight advantage.
We are happy with the win and now we must recover in time for our next opponents. The target was the semifinal, but now we want to be in the final.
It was obvious that the home fans gave their support to the Eagles, what do you make of this?
The support from the home fans was fantastic.
They were fantastic all through the game. But my players also showed good attitude and we played very well, especially in the first half which also gave them something to cheer about.
I hope they continue to support us in the tournament.
We had a plan and we knew South Africa would find it hard to replicate their performance against Egypt, so we had a slight advantage. We are happy with the win and now we must recover in time for our next opponents. The target was the semifinal, but now we want to be in the final
Samuel Chukwueze was the star of the game, what do you make of this young man’s performance and the other player that came into the starting lineup; Jamilu Collins?
We had to fight back with good solidarity; I knew that we had a little advantage with our fresh players coming in today.
Collins and Chukwueze started the game, they both did very well and the performance of my team was good.
The competition will get more difficult now; we have to recover quickly to face our opponents which will be Algeria.
They have a strong team; we are going to be ready for them.
Algeria will be the next battle, what should we expect from the team?
The next match in a championship is always the toughest, so it is always important to approach it that way.
That is why we must now forget what we achieved against South Africa in our quarter final match and start to build up towards the semifinal.
There is no time to rest on our oars. We must make all the sacrifices we can now to achieve our objectives at this tournament.
We must stay focused and be fully committed.
