Stephen Keshi : We Were Tactically Disciplined

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has commented on the Super Eagles 2-1 win over Ivory Coast. The ex New Nigeria Bank libero has praised the fighting spirit of his charges against the bookies favorites.

''I know the mentality of my players, their level of concentration, and I knew they could do it. My players were disciplined. Nobody gave us a chance, but we showed character.
 
''When I made the team, I knew we would have to fight. We started the game well and were tactically disciplined. It came with determination and mental toughness. I have a lot of respect for the Ivorian team, but we fought hard,'' Keshi was quoted as saying by afcon2013online.com.

Meanwhile, coach of the Elephants Sabri Lamouchi is disappointed with the result which knocked the team out of the African Nations Cup.

He said in his post match comments: ''We had only one goal and that was to win the Africa Cup of Nations. For some of us, it might be a last chance. For me, it is my first Africa Cup of Nations and I had the same objective.
 
''We did our best but could not succeed. It’s an obvious disappointment and you can imagine the state of the players.
 
''For me, it is a huge sadness. I have seen players work for a month, make efforts and I thought we were on the right path, doing good work, but it was not enough. On resignation, I do not even think about resigning after six months knowing the job done. It certainly was not enough to win the tournament.''