Ex-International Plays Down Keshi Squad’s 1-0 Defeat


Ex-international, Mutiu Adepoju, has played down the Super Eagles 1-0 defeat in early Thursday morning’s international friendly tie away to Peru in Lima, insisting that the result was not as important as the lessons learnt by Stephen Keshi going into next month’s Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Namibia.

The South Americans defeated the home-based dominated Super Eagles 1-0 in the match decided in the 40,000 seater Estadio Nacionale, Lima, with Hamburg of Germany’s striker, Paolo Guerrero’s 34th minute goal separating the two sides. The loss was coach Stephen Keshi’s second consecutive defeat in charge of the senior national team.

Adepoju told Complete Sports on Thursday evening that the most important thing is for the coach to be able to identify the strength and weaknesses of the players in order to be able to start correcting them as part of preparations towards the crowded fixtures in June.

“I did not watch the match to be honest with you, but the 1-0 score-line points to the fact that it was indeed a close and tight game,” Adepoju observed.

“It shows that the team is gradually taking shape. Remember, the essence of friendly matches is to put the team into shape.  Yes, a match is a match and everyone would love to win. But in the event of defeat such as this, it is important that we take the positives from it and move on.”