Super Eagles, yesterday, proved that they have not yet found a winning formula as they lost to Costa Rica in an international friendly played in San Jose.

Costa Rica is heading to the World Cup and the match, played in the early hours of yesterday, was one of the warm up games organised for the Los Ticos ahead of the Copa du Mundo.

Since the Super Eagles lost the Qatar 2022 World Cup ticket to Ghana, Nigeria had also lost two other games to Mexico and Ecuador in the United States before the latest defeat by Costa Rica.

Oscar Duarte opened the scoring for Los Ticos seven minutes into the game when he sliced past goalkeeper Kayode Bankole off a free-kick from the left by Joel Campbell.

Attack-minded defender Dominion Ohaka danced his way into the Los Ticos’ 18-yard box in the 18th minute but his shot flew over the bar.

Bankole made a number of good saves but the Eagles’ forwards could not mine fortune from the few opportunities that came their way, and in the 73rd minute, Kendall Waston headed over the Nigerian goalkeeper and a defender into the net, off a pull out from the left by Campbell.

Reacting to the Super Eagles’ 2-0 defeat, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Ibrahim Shehu Gusau, challenged the coaching crew and the players to take hard lessons from the loss and commit to returning to winning ways henceforth.

“Costa Rica are heading to the World Cup and were highly spurred on by their fans, but then we are Nigeria and we should always have it in mind that our people want us to win all the time. I am not saying they did not give a good performance; they should know that winning matters.”

“The new NFF Board will be concerned with players that wear our green-and-white going out for wins, whether they play in competitive and friendly matches. It is not enough to try or to make an effort; winning mentality is key. They tried their best in the game but they should learn from this and know that next time, they have to go all out to win or avoid defeat.”

The Super Eagles have another scheduled friendly match against Portugal on November 18, just two days before the World Cup kicks off in Qatar. (The Guardian)

Update news