John Obi Mikel Urges Eagles To Stand Up And Be Counted

Nigeria remain winless in nine World Cup games following their shocking 0 - 0 draw with Iran on Monday evening.

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has been doing some soul searching on what went wrong at Arena da Baixada.

And he has admitted that the Eagles need to stand up and be counted in their next two games against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Argentina.

“Naturally we’re disappointed because we know what it means to win your opening match at the World Cup.

“We thought we had a good chance of winning. We created some openings in the first half and I think we deserved to score.

“ Iran kept us at bay, though, and they were well organised at the back,” Mikel said.

He continued : “We need to raise our game if we want to reach the next round. We prepared very well for this World Cup and we can’t afford to drop another point in our remaining games. ”

John Obi Mikel was presented with the Budweiser Man of the Match  trophy immediately after the game.