Nigerian national team assistant coach, Usman Abdallah has said it does not matter how many goals Nigeria score, the ultimate aim is to progress and win the African Cup of Nations.
The 49 year old said the AFCON is a difficult competition and the only thing that matter is the progression through the stages of the tournament.
In his exact words, Abdallah said:
“These are very difficult competitions. Sometimes the goal doesn’t matter if we have to score 10 or 3 or 1. We are starting all over again in the next match. So the main aim of competition like that is to win and progress”.
“Sometimes when you squander a lot of goals, you happen to go and pay for it. It’s just like the match I watched between Mali and Ivory Coast. The way Mali keeps on getting opportunities and then squandering them, I told somebody at the beginning, i think Mali might end up losing that one”.
“Maybe we might be scared in that kind of karma when it comes to football, but I think the most important thing is to get a winning team. So if my goal is to win, even though we are squandering rules, but at the end of the day, it wouldn’t matter whether it is 3-0, semi-final or 1-0, it would still take us to the next round. The most important thing is to win the match and progress”.
“But you can see the goals keep on coming. The players are now scoring, Ademola has not been scoring for a long time, but now he happened to be one of the highest goal scorers in the competition, in the club. Osimhen is somebody that we think is going to poach a lot of goals, but also when you look at it, the players happen to be around Osimhen. So it gives the opportunity for the other players to keep on scoring”.
“So, in any way it works for us. I think the most important thing, when we win the match, then we look at another, the next match and then we go for it. The most important thing, the team is winning, is progress and so that’s what matters most”.
The Super Eagles are in the semi final of the AFCON and will take on the Bafana Bafana of South Africa on Wednesday, in Bouake.
