Football
ESPN staff 10y

Keshi: Nigeria can still improve

Despite advancing to the round of 16 at the World Cup, Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi was not completely pleased with his team's performance in a 3-2 defeat to Nigeria on Wednesday.

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Argentina struck twice through Lionel Messi in the first half, and though Nigeria responded with quick equalisers after both goals, Keshi said the Super Eagles deferred too much to one of the teams favoured to win the tournament.

"In the first half we gave too much respect to Argentina and I didn't like it," he said. "Messi is one heck of a player and you can't take it away from him. He is blessed. He is from Jupiter. We lost the game because we gave too much respect to the Argentines in the first half, but then we came out aggressive in the second half."

He added: "The good thing is that we tried to play our football in the second half and control the game. That is the style of play that we have. We knocked the ball around and there was a lot of mobility in the team. I don't know why we decided to play deep in the first half. That's not the way we play, but it's good that the players started to play their game in the second half."

Nigeria could have won Group F with a victory on Wednesday but will instead advance as runners-up, likely facing France in the round of 16.

Keshi said his team has improved since they arrived in Brazil, but there is still a long way to go to prepare for the contenders in the knockout stage.

"We need improvement in every department," Keshi said. "My team is more relaxed and focused on the tournament. It's not easy, but there's progression in the team."

He also revealed he had not known that Iran -- who could have claimed second place with victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina -- had trailed for the majority of their 3-1 defeat on Wednesday.

"I only found out the result of the Bosnia game after the game," he said. "I just wanted to pay attention to what my players were doing. Thank God, we came out second."

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