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President, Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, says he had difficulty sleeping following the Super Eagles shock 1-0 loss at home to the Central African Republic in a Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier, The PUNCH reports.
Against all expectations, the Wild Beasts handed the Eagles their first home defeat in World Cup qualifying in 40 years at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos.
Substitute Karl Namnganda, who plays in the French fourth tier league, took advantage of a defensive mix-up between William Troost-Ekong and Leon Balogun to score the stunning winner.
Speaking with Arise TV in an interview on Monday, Pinnick blamed the Eagles for not taking their chances and underrating their opponents.
“I’m not going to defend (Gernot) Rohr when I should not be doing that,” Pinnick said.
“Most of our players live outside the shores of the country. Rohr is at the helm of our monitoring team and he talks with these players, the coaches and some of the backroom staff at these clubs.
“Rohr has a relationship with all of their coaches and that is something many people don’t know.
“It is not negotiable, we will do our best to ensure we qualify for the World Cup. Nigeria has been to the World Cup on every continent but not in the Middle East.
“The incident in Lagos was quite unfortunate. We underrated the strength and capacity of the Central African Republic. That was what happened. We paid for losing our chances. I could not sleep for days.”
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