Former Nigeria international Finidi George has revealed some of the reasons that led to the Super Eagles painful exit at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States.
The Eagles were 1-0 up and had a man advantage over Italy in the round of 16 of the World Cup.
But with two minutes remaining in the game, Roberto Baggio equalised and went on to score a penalty to secure a 2-1 win for Italy.
And recalling what transpired before and after the game Finidi who won the 1994 AFCON winner, in a radio programme “Take One” on Brila FM on Wednesday, said:”That game against Italy, we would have won it but we had some issues before the game whereby (Clemens) Westerhof was not happy with the situation in the hotel. Too many visitors at every given time.
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“So he wanted to move the team from that hotel but did not consult the players and we didn’t want to move. He told us just an hour before that we would be leaving but it was too short a time to do that. We didn’t want to leave so Westerhof left and said he was going to resign, he left the hotel and they looked for him and brought him back.
“That was an off field problem we had buy during the game we should have done a better job. I don’t know maybe because of experience we didn’t know what to do, maybe we felt a little bit nervous and they jad tgeir opportunity and scored.
“After the game we were all sad. Some players were so angry that they spoke confronted Westerhof. They felt the choices he made for the match was not the best.”
And when asked on what he would have done against Italy if he was in Westerhof’s shoes, Finidi said:”If I was the coach, the starters would have been different. Though we’ve been winning before the Italy game but for me in a crucial game I would have kept the team. I wouldn’t have made a change, maybe one or two changes.
“I would have kept the team the way it use to be. As a coach what is working you keep it that way, you don’t change things in a crucial game like that.”
4 Comments
Na now all of una dey come out dey talk one by one.Well its past now and lets look towards 2022 and see that we achieve something good.
Can we move past this old lost battle? Are we the first to loose like this or have we never won a match with the last kick of the match? So what is new? Naija we like dwelling on past mistakes and past glory that is why we are still the same but not improving.
Since then what has been happening. 1998 2002 2006x 2010 2014 2018 2022 is around the corner .some countries in urope will be grateful if they can have the present crops of players eagles parade. And probably win qatar 22 with it.if not corona the Olympics football will probably be going on now .and Nigeria will be checking on dstv . Who will win .gold silver bronze in football. Then we start rebuildin to face zambia Algeria Egypt in our group.before u no wat is happening calculus and integration will start. If zambia can go to egypt to draw and nigêria can beat Algeria in algiers. Den abi no be so.
Don’t change things in a crucial game like that.