Garkpah says Liberia showed the Super Eagles too much respect

Liberia Football Association communication manager Gologo Ben Garkpah thinks the Lone Star showed Nigeria too much respect as they suffered a 2-0 loss at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on Friday.

Kelechi Iheanacho’s brace against Liberia ensured Nigeria began their World Cup qualifying campaign on a fine note.

Reflecting on the result, the Liberian football official told Goal: “I think we started slowly. We showed too much respect to the Super Eagles as we didn’t create many scoring opportunities.

“We didn’t trouble [Maduka] Okoye much; he looked to be on holiday for most of the game probably because the formation did not allow us to push higher up the pitch and mount pressure on their back four.

“Also, we did not defend particularly well on those two dead-ball situations. Goalkeeper Ashley [Williams] should have easily dealt with Kelechi [Iheanacho’s] drive from 20 yards out and Oscar [Dorley] height and weight didn’t favour him in that one-on-one challenge with Iheanacho.

“I feel there looks to be a little bit of shoving but don’t want to make a lot of excuses about it. We just defended poorly. So, of the entire game, those two set-pieces were the difference.”

Liberia, who are bottom of the group, will host Central African Republic at home on Monday, 6 September, while Nigeria will travel to face Cape Verde on Tuesday.