Super Eagles head coach Jose Peseiro believes his side would have had a better result against Algeria last night if the match officials had not made costly mistakes.
The Nigerian team lost 2-1 to the hosts in Oran after taking the lead through Terem Moffi, as Riyad Mahrez and Youcef Atal turned it around for the 2019 African champions.
However, the Super Eagles would have taken a 2-0 if Ademola Lookman’s goal had not been incorrectly ruled out for offside by Algerian referee Mehrez Melki.
Algeria’s second goal after the break was also from a penalty that some felt should not have been awarded.
“Everybody makes mistakes,” Peseiro said in his post-match interview. “Myself and the players can make mistakes. We scored a goal that was disallowed.
“The penalty I could accept. He shot the ball before Frank (Onyeka) caught him. We must accept. There was no offside when we scored. It should have been 2-0 to us at that point.”
Still, Peseiro felt the Super Eagles should have got something from the game judging by the amount of chances they had and the effort they put in.
“My team fought hard and created opportunities. A draw would have been a fair result,” he added.
“Congratulations to Algeria. Fantastic atmosphere, good match. It was a good experience for us. Algerians supported their team. It’s good for us to know where we are and move on from there.”
The former Sporting Lisbon, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela head coach admitted that his team was a work in progress that needs to improve, especially the forward line.
“We didn’t do well in attack at times, I think we can do better in that phase,” the 62-year-old Portuguese noted.
“We can improve our game generally. We did well defensively but we can do more offensively. We need to control the ball more, show more character and fight real hard.
“We need to improve our organisation, put new dynamics. We need to work more. We have quality players but we need to improve in the area of organisation.”
The Super Eagles spent one week together in Constantine before flying to Oran for the match, and Peseiro sees benefits in the time spent together.
“The camping showed the quality of our players and their collective effort,” he said. “I am happy with the camping; it is not easy to have good understanding and good organisation without training.
“We spent eight days in camp and everyone tried to do the maximum. You try to input more dynamism, more organisation.
“It was another opportunity to know the players more, know the team generally and the new players, create more understanding in the team, work more to building cohesion in our game.”
Despite his positive outlook, Peseiro was still left ‘sad and disappointed’ by the result.
He said: “It was a hard match, Algeria is a good team. Our players tried to do what I asked them to do in training.
“It is possible you lose in football, I’m sad we lost. I don’t like to lose any match but I am very happy with the performance of my players. They did well in the game.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t win the game, but I’m happy with the performance of my players.”
The defeat to Algeria last night was the third straight time the Super Eagles would lose to the North Africans in three years.
