Why Nigeria didn’t do well at past World Cups – Keshi

 

Stephen Keshi has said that he and his team, will take each match as it comes, as they prepare to play Iran in their Group F opener.

In an interview published in the Team Nigeria brochure for the tournament, Keshi said Iran was the only team on their mind and they would think about subsequent games later.
He said: “Today as I speak, I know we are going to play Iran on June 16. There are two other matches in the group phase, against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Argentina, but our focus for now is what we must achieve against Iran in Curitiba.”

The Big Boss expressed belief that his team has what it takes to go as far as possible in the competition.

“There would have been no reason to take part in the qualifying series if we didn’t believe we would make it to the finals, and there would have been no reason to prepare so hard for the finals if we knew we were only coming to Brazil to make up the number.

“I have a group of players who believe in themselves. They want to go as far as they can in Brazil, and the formula we will employ is to look at what is immediately in front of us and focus and plan on how to tackle it.”

The African champions were dumped out of France 1998, after they switched off to a potential quarter-final clash against Brazil, when they played Denmark in the second round. The result was a 4-1 loss. In 1994, they were only eliminated in the second round.

He added: “Both situations were unfortunate. That is why you must always focus on your immediate challenge. We definitely lost to inexperience in 1994. Here in Brazil, we have a mixture of youth and experience. We are ready to fly.”