As Nigeria confront Honduras in the Rio Olympics
bronze medal match today in Belo Horizonte,
Coach Samson Siasia has said his team would not
return to their country without the bronze medal.
bronze medal match today in Belo Horizonte,
Coach Samson Siasia has said his team would not
return to their country without the bronze medal.
“We still have something to play for,” Siasia said.
“We didn’t deserve to win against Germany with the
way we played, so we should just forget about it
and look forward to the next one and at least we
will try to have the bronze medal going back home.
“You’re better off having a bronze medal than not
having anything at all. That’s the only way we can
motivate them and it’s going to be very, very tough.
They wanted to go to Rio but you need to earn it to
go there.”
Honduras will present a different challenge than
Germany from a tactical perspective, but make no
mistake, Los Catrachos will be hungry to respond
positively after a disappointing outing in Rio de
Janeiro against Brazil.
“We need to play [against them] the same way
we’ve been playing,” Siasia said. “There were too
many mistakes and against a German side like we
came up against, if you don’t utilise your chances, it
becomes a problem and that’s what actually
happened. It was a learning experience. We’re all
learning every day.”
Nigeria started Rio 2016 full of energy and promise
with a thrilling 5-4 win over Japan and then a 1-0
victory against Sweden. They fell 2-0 to Colombia
in their final group stage match but they were
already guaranteed a first-place finish before that
game. In their quarter-final against Denmark, Nigeria
looked comfortable and shored up their defence to
win 2-0 before coming up against Germany.
“We’ve been very great. The mentality has been
right. What did we want? We wanted the gold
medal and that’s what we were shooting for. They
came out without reservation and went all the way
and tried to see if they could get it.
“Everything in life is a learning process. If you find
yourself at a stage like this again, you want to do
better. It’s all about the bronze now. You don’t want
to go home without anything.”
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