Former Super Eagles winger, Tijani Babangida has blasted the team for their poor showing in Wednesday’s 1-0 friendly defeat against Czech Republic and believes they must show more hunger if they want to make an impact at the World Cup in Russia. The three-time African champions were far from their best in the encounter as they suffered their third defeat in their last four outings. “It was a disappointing performance from the players. We expected a lot from them coming from the game against England, but they didn’t live up to expectations,” Babangida told CSN after the game.
“It was not a good performance and good result for the team. They have now lost three of their last four games which is not good for a team going to the World Cup. You need to go into a competition like that with a lot of confidence by winning your pre-tournament friendlies. The players didn’t also show much hunger in the game and I’m totally disappointed with that.” He added.
The Super Eagles will open their account at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia against Croatia on June 16 and Babangida, who was part of Nigeria’s squad to the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, stated that they must work hard in training ahead of the game. He further hinted that they must fight hard to beat the Croatians to progress from the group stage. The game against Croatia is very important and if we don’t beat them, it will hard to qualify from the group. They still have some days left before that game and they must work hard in training to improve on their performance.” the former Ajax star said.