Siasia: Olympic Eagles Won’t Let Bronze Chance Slip

Nigeria U-23s coach Samson Siasia has declared that his team will be gunning for bronze while admitting that his side were no match for Germany who ended their Olympic gold dream with a 2-0 defeat in the semi-finals of the Rio 2016 men’s football event, Complete Sports Nigeria reports.

Siasia told FIFA.com that his team didn’t deserve to win the encounter as they made so many mistakes and were punished for their profligacy in front of goal.

“We didn’t play well in the match [against Germany],” Siasia said.

“We’ve been playing better than what we showed against Germany. There were too many mistakes from us. The Germans are a very good side and they are tactically very, very sound.”

“They were running behind and we couldn’t defend them. We did have chances in the first half to score but we didn’t utilise them. That’s what it is in football. If you get to this stage, you have to take your chances.”

“We need to play [against them] the same way we’ve been playing,” Siasia said.

“There were too many mistakes and against a German side like we came up against, if you don’t utilise your chances, it becomes a problem and that’s what actually happened. It was a learning experience. We’re all learning every day.”

He however promised his team will be going all out to win bronze against the Honduras side who suffered an embarrassing to a 6-0 defeat to hosts Brazil.

“We still have something to play for,” Siasia continued.

“We didn’t deserve to win against Germany with the way we played, so we should just forget about it and look forward to the next one and at least we will try to have the bronze medal going back home.”

“You’re better off having a bronze medal than not having anything at all. ”

“What did we want? We wanted the gold medal and that’s what we were shooting for. They came out without reservation and went all the way and tried to see if they could get it.”

“Everything in life is a learning process. If you find yourself at a stage like this again, you want to do better. It’s all about the bronze now. You don’t want to go home without anything.”