Former Nigeria International Peter Odemwingie is of the opinion that Super Eagles could have performed better against Croatia if the team’s coaches had changed their selection when they started trailing at half time.
The Super Eagles kicked off their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign with a 2-0 defeat to Croatia at the Kaliningrad Stadium in Russia on Saturday night.
An own goal by Oghenekaro Etebo on 33 minutes and a nicely-converted penalty by Luka Modric in the 70th minute gave the Croatians the win.
Nigeria started with Francis Uzoho, Shehu Abdulahi, Williams Troost-Ekong, Leon Balogun, Bryan Idowu, Etebo, Wilfred Ndidi, John Mikel Obi, Alex Iwobi, Victor Moses and Odion Ighalo; then brought in Ahmed Musa for Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho for Ighalo and Simy Nwankwo for Mikel in the second half.
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But Odemwingie, who represented Nigeria at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, said he could understand the team selection from the beginning of the game, but expected it to change at 1-0.
“It’s a disappointing result and performance,” he told BBC Radio after the game.
“We only had one effort on goal which was a looping header. [John Obi] Mikel needs to play deeper in the role he is used to with Chelsea and [Alex] Iwobi needs to play in the middle.
“I understand the team selection in the first half but we should have changed it when we went 1-0 down.
“I don’t expect to win the World Cup with this young squad but we can improve,” he sated.
Nigeria are at the bottom of Group D as Croatia go top with three points, followed by Argentina and Iceland with one points each.
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