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Nigeria coach, Stephen Keshi says the Super Eagles would have avoided defeat if they had not shown “too much respect” to Argentina in one of the final preliminary games in Group F of the 2014 Fifa World Cup .
Two wonderfully-taken goals by Lionel Messi inspired Argentina to a 3-2 win over Nigeria in Porto Alegre on Wednesday but Keshi was not the happiest man in the world afterwards despite seeing his side book their place in the round of 16.
The “Big Boss” is adamant the Super Eagles would have claimed a more creditable result if they had played a better first half.
“We showed too much respect to Argentina in the first half. I did not like it. But second half, we came out. We’ve started playing our football. If we had done that in the first half, I think it would have been a different ball game,” Keshi said after the game.
Nigeria will now meet the winners of Group E in Brasilia on June 30 and Keshi knows his charges must improve if they are to reach the last eight.
“We need to improve everywhere. We are coming back to our shape. The rhythm has started picking up and we are just going to go with it.
“The boys are more relaxed. They are now more focused on the tournament. We had been apart for a while so it was never going to be easy to get that rhythm immediately.
"There’s progression in the team which is good,” he said
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