Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung has described Nigeria’s 1-2 loss to Argentina on Tuesday as very unfortunate.
Dalung, who led Federal Government’s delegation to cheer the Super Eagles in their last Group D match, said the team blew its chances of beating Argentina and qualifying for a possible second round.
According to him, the loss was painful to Nigerians who felt it was a game that should have been easily won with everything going for the team until the dying moments of the match.
“I wish to apologise for disappointing Nigerian by our early exit from the World Cup, leaving many football loving fans devastated. We know the passion and football followership of Nigerians but it is unfortunate that we couldn’t make it even to the next round.
“The players did their best in this game but the technical glitches cost us a second round ticket. How we couldn’t hold the ball for the last 5 minutes is still a shock to us.” Dalung attributed the loss to poor game management on the part of the technical crew and inexperience of the young team.
“I have interacted with Nigerians here in Russia and it appears the technical crew could not manage the 1-1 draw with just 5 minutes left.
“It is time to go back to the technical committee and technical department for future assignments. The Super Eagles technical crew cannot work independent of the Nigeria Football Federation’s technical committee and department.
“We just need to analyse what went wrong, take the positives, learn the vital lessons for future purposes and then move on,” he said.
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