Keshi: Eagles will improve

LUKMAN OLOGUNRO |

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi believes it will take time for his newly assembled side to gel, despite opening their 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign with victory over Chad. Second-half goals from Gbolahan Salami and Odion Ighalo got the Super Eagles off to the perfect start on Saturday as they left the Ahmadu Bello Stadium with all three points. The win will go some way to restoring confidence in the team, having failed to qualify for AFCON 2015, and Keshi expects them to only get better the more they play together. “We are not making up excuses. Rather, it is a fact that this is a new team, and we will need to play together for some time to get things right,” Keshi told Vanguard. “But I have a lot of confidence in this team, and we will continue to re-build in order to get better.” Meanwhile, Keshi said he would have reacted in a more ferocious manner if he was in the shoes of midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi. Keshi said he was not going to blame him for his reckless actions that forced the referee to show him a straight red card, leaving Nigeria to finish with 10 men against Chad in an African Cup of Nations qualifier played at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna state. “I m not blaming Onazi for his action. I would have probably done worse if I were in his shoes,” Keshi said, absolving the player of any blame in the incident, even though he acknowledged that he should not have retaliated. “But we will likely miss him for two or three matches, because it was a straight red card,” he added.