Nigeria head coach Jose Peseiro believes South Africa’s win over Morocco should provide a lesson to his team ahead of semifinal clash in Bouake today.
Peseiro has improved the Super Eagles fortunes since the unconvincing 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea in the opening game of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Nigeria have now won four matches in succession without conceding a goal. The Super Eagles defeated hosts Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, Cameroon and Angola during that run.
Just like Nigeria, Bafana Bafana are yet to concede in open since the opening day defeat to Mali in the group stages.
“We know the capacity and the power of the opponent, they knocked Morocco out, who had a fantastic World Cup. They even knocked out my Portugal in the last World Cup, beat Brazil in a friendly match, so that’s a team with good quality (to beat at AFCON).
“But my players and I, we know what to do, but sure we must play 100% or more to beat a really good team,” said Peseiro as quoted by CAF Online.
Peseiro believes his side have the grit and qualities needed to advance to the final on Sunday.
“Our team has done a good job until now, we’re in the semi-finals, we’ve shown good spirit, good organisation, we’ve shown commitment, determination, sacrifice.
We’ve played like a team together and we now have a tough match against a good national team – and they [our players] want to beat South Africa to reach the final but for that, they need to play a high-level match,” he concluded.
Nigeria will count on Vincent Osimheni in the semifinal, with the star striker confirmed fit after suffering from abdominal discomfort in the past two days.
