Some football enthusiasts in Gombe State said on Sunday that the Super Eagles lost 0-2 to Madagascar because they underrated their opponents.
The fans said this in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Ine of the fans, Usman Babayo, said: “ it is obvious that the Eagles underrated Madagascar and that reflected in the reason Coach Gernot Rohr used some players to start the match.
“ In a tournament of this nature every match counts and you must bring out your best. Using a weak selection for this game was not too good.
“I am very disappointed in the fact that a wrong history was made through our loss and that’s my pain.”
Another fan Frank Abel told NAN that as favourites, the Eagles went into the match with a lot of confidence, but were shocked by a team that was not rated amongst the top 100 teams in the world.
“That’s football for you. You can be shocked when you use paper analysis.
“The Eagles were very confident but we all know that confidence don’t win matches but strategies and team work. Madagascar were more anxious to win and they won.
“In any tournament if you don’t play as a team, the result will not be as expected and that is exactly what happened today.
“We are really not happy that the players could not defend our name. A team not amongst top 100 to defeat the 45th FIFA ranked team is to say the least an embarrassment that we must learn from.”
Also speaking, another fan, Esther Bala expressed her disappointment with the Super Eagles’ performance, but said that the defeat would only spur the team to do well in the next round and the weak points to be improved upon.
Bala said: “ This is football were a lot of surprises await fans, players and coaches. The defeat is good for us to prepare better to avoid such surprises as the team progresses.
“ Coach Rohr should now know better the players that should be used to start the game in subsequent matches. I am not really impressed with Mikel in the midfield.
“ Ndidi should have started the game to strengthen the midfield. Defensive errors should be avoided if we must raise any hope of getting to the quarter final.”
Adam Garba said he was optimistic about the Eagles beating Madagascar looking at the ranking of both teams, adding that the Eagles must now seat up.
Garba said that it was discouraging that Eagles have now lost the leadership of the group to Madagascar.
“ We must now be ready to square up in a tough battle with the leader of the group we are meeting in the round of 16.”
