Peseiro reacts to Lookman's disallowed goal, controversial penalty decision; praises Algeria fans

Nigeria's men national team head coach, Jose Peseiro has voiced out his displeasure with the officiating in Nigeria's international friendly Algeria.

The Fennec Foxes of Algeria led by Djamel Belmadi defeated the Super Eagles of Nigeria 2-1 in an international friendly played at the Miloud Hadefi Stadium in Oran on Tuesday night.

Peseiro's men raced into an early lead in the 9th minute through a goal scored by Lorient star Terem Moffi.

Minutes later, Ademola Lookman extended Nigeria's lead after receiving a pass from Moffi but the goal was however chalked off for offside and that raised eyebrows.

Another controversial incident happened in the 40th minute when Nigeria's lead was halted.

Frank Onyeka was deemed to have stamped upon an Algerian attacker in the box, enabling the center referee to point to the spot.

Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez stepped up and converted his spot kick, bringing the scores to 1-1.

Peseiro believes that the match officials contributed to the outcome of the game with their bad officiating.

"Everybody can make mistakes, like me and the players. But the first and biggest mistake was our second goal.

"We scored 2-0, a clear goal and the referee said offside. It was not offside. Even the penalty, although I can accept they shot the ball then Frank touched him.

“The main point is that we led 2-0 and the referee tagged it as offside.”

The Portuguese however didn't act like a sore loser, he congratulated Algeria for the win and praised the fans also.

"Congratulations to Algeria, fantastic atmosphere. Good match, an important match given the experience, the capacity, that quality and playing in a different environment.

"The Algerian people support the team a lot, it was a good test for us".

Atal's long-range screamer in the 61st minute was enough to extend Nigeria's three game winless run against the 2019 AFCON winners to four.

Toyosi Afolayan 

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