Speaking after the Super Eagles of Nigeria defeated Cote d’Ivoire to move into the AFCON Semi-finals, coach Stephen Keshi said he was so elated that he felt like kissing match winner, Sunday Mba.
The Warri Wolves ran half the length of the pitch, evading every Ivorian tackle, to curl in a majestic winner after Cheik Tiote had cancelled out Emenike’s fierce opener.
“I will just go and kiss him and say ‘thank you’,” Keshi said on Sunday in Rustenburg.
“It’s good to see that home-based players if given the chance the opportunity they will do a lot more, but it’s a shame that country’s people don’t have patience, they think that it is only foreign-based professionals who can do the job and I disagree.
“And this not about an individual player. We just wanted to win and there is not just one hero in our team because everyone is a hero and it just happens that it is a Mba, who scored the beautiful and winning goal.”
It was the second start of the tournament for 24-year-old Mba. Nigeria will now face Mali on Wednesday, for a place in the finals.
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