'That was not the reason' - Finidi refuses to blame fatigue, reveals why Super Eagles lost to Cheetahs 

Finidi George has insisted that fatigue was not to blame for the Super Eagles' 2-1 defeat suffered at the hands of neighbors Benin in a 2026 World Cup qualifying match on Monday evening. 

It seemed Nigeria meant business when Club Brugge midfielder Raphael Onyedika, of all people, opened the scoring in the 27th minute, but Jodel Dossou restored parity before Steve Mounié netted what proved to be the game-winning goal in the third minute of first half stoppage time.

The Cheetahs had an advantage over the Super Eagles heading into the clash due to the fact that they had had an extra day to prepare for the matchday four fixture compared to Nigeria.

Benin faced Rwanda last Thursday, while the Super Eagles were in action against South Africa's Bafana Bafana a day later.

Gernot Rohr's squad remained in Abidjan following the match, while the Super Eagles journeyed to Ivory Coast and acquainted themselves with the Stade Félix Houphouët-Boigny pitch shortly after arriving.

Finidi revealed that the Super Eagles players were not worn out and attributed the loss to errors made during the first half. 

When asked whether his team had recovery problems and did not have enough time to prepare for the game, Finidi said at the post-match press conference: "That was not the reason, we all saw it was two blunders and two mistakes and then they got the goal.

"They did not have clear cut chances to have scored more. It was mistake from my team that enabled them to get those two goals but apart from that I can't put that on fatigue.

"You saw how we played the second half so if the team was tired they wouldn't have put up that kind of performance in the second half.

"We needed that second goal to really boost us but that didn't happen."

Finidi noted that the Cheetahs capitalized on lapses in concentration from his defenders to score both goals. 

On what was difficult and the setbacks during the game, he said: "What was difficult? We had control of the game, we had fantastic 25 minutes but that was a mistake we didn't defend well, a long ball from the goalkeeper resulted in a goal.

"They built on that momentum and got that corner kick which we didn't defend well and they got the second goal.

"We would have defended well, better concentration would have given us an edge but we didn't do that. If you don't take your chances in a World Cup qualifier and you don't defend properly you struggle."

The Super Eagles, fifth in the six-team table, will face Rwanda and Zimbabwe in the World Cup qualifiers in March 2025.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

Photo Credit: Fédération Béninoise de Football 

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