As Nigerians continue to put to the blame on head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Jose Peseiro following a poor start to the world cup qualifiers, a former coach of the team is of a different opinion.
Nigeria started the 2026 world cup qualifiers with two draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe respectively. Both games ended in a 1-1 and they are now third on the log in group C behind South Africa and Rwanda.
Peseiro’s future has been in the news lately over the poor performances but Austine Eguavoen, who was the immediate past coach of the team before the appointment of the Portuguese says the poor results has a lot to do with the mentality of the players.
He said: “I talk about character and changing the mentality. When we play against minors ‘small teams’ this is always our performance. Even when we play against big teams, we intend to raise our game.
“We should approach every game like a final game. Once you do that, I don’t think there will be any problem. We have all it takes. I’m not being political. I have been a professional all my life and I will try to speak the truth. I’m not perfect.
“If you just change that mindset, the way you play against Ghana, Brazil, and Tunisia, that’s the same way you have to approach small countries as well.”