Emenike blames loss on pitch

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Super Eagles striker, Emenike Emenike believes the playing surface at the Municipal Stadium, Khartoum is to blame for the lackluster display and 0-1 defeat to the Falcons of Jediane in 2015 Afcon qualifying.

The game was played on artificial surface on Saturday and Abd Elgadir Babeker Bakri struck the only goal of the contest on 42 minutes to keep the qualification hopes of the African champions hanging by a thread.

Emenike, who is on the books of Turkish club, Fernabahce has now moved to explain the less-than-appealing display of the Super Eagles on Saturday.

“(The pitch) we played on (on) Saturday is (worse) than when we were playing street football. CAF must act to stop nonsense like this from happening and they deliberately took us there (Khartoum) because they know we play on better pitches,” Emenike said.

On his part, midfielder, John Mikel Obi said he was disappointed in reports in some sections of the local media dismissing Nigeria’s chances of reaching the Afcon finals in Morocco.

“Why I can’t still believe how and why we lost that game it’s important to move ahead and for those saying we don’t deserve to be in Morocco, I think that is unfortunate and we must stop spreading that negativity because it gets to the team,” he said.

Mikel also echoed the sentiments of Emenike as regards the pitch in Kahrtoum stating that the playing surface was not the best he’s played in.

“The pitch we played in was awful. You can’t move, the ball bounces when you want to control it and when you shoot it goes the wrong direction, it was a nightmare playing on that pitch,” he said.

Nigeria can still reach the Afcon if they win their remaining three matches and South Africa defeats Congo at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane on Wednesday.

Ejide said it is important for Nigerians to united and throw their weight behind the team if set goals are to be realized.

“It’s at times like this that we need the media and all of Nigerians but what we hear is condemnation, crucify them. That will not help the team,” he said.

Nigeria will meet Sudan in their next game in Abuja on Wednesday before visiting the Stade Municipal, Pointe-Noire for a date with Congo in their penultimate game in qualifying on November 15.

The Super Eagles then round up their 2015 Afcon qualifying campaign with a home game against South Africa on November 19.


Source: Super Sports

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