Former Super Eagles winger, Emmanuel Amuneke, has warned that the team could be eliminated from the group stage of the 2018 World Cup, if they do not improve before their opening game against Croatia.
Amuneke was speaking to CompleteSports, after Nigeria lost 1-0 to Czech Republic in the final warm-up game on Wednesday.
“It was not a good game, we must be honest with ourselves but there’s room for improvement.
“The team still needs more intensive sessions before the Croatia game. These games have shown that there are several lapses in the team generally that they must work on before Nigeria’s first game.
“We could still correct them as we have 10 more days to our first game against Croatia.
“They (Nigeria) changed formations in the second half which was good, the players are trying to understand the philosophy of the coach but their reaction to the second balls was slow and they were are not quick enough when challenging the Czech players,” he said.
Amuneke also expressed his displeasure on the team’s set-piece defending.
“The defenders didn’t show more awareness and aggression in dealing with set pieces. They must be winning all the second balls,” he added.
Nigeria will face Croatia, Iceland and Argentina in Group D.
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