According to ANAEDOONLINE Sports Extra, Nigerian international Alex Iwobi bemoaned the uneven fields the Super Eagles play on at home and claimed it had a negative impact on the team.
Despite having a star-studded squad under Jose Peseiro with an average age of 25, and despite having players like Wilfred Ndidi, Samuel Chukwueze, Joe Aribo, Victor Osimhen of Napoli, and Moses Simon among others in their ranks, the Eagles were defeated by mediocre Guinea-Bissau last Friday at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja in one of their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The 26-year-old, however, attributed the team’s subpar home performances to poor pitches.
“We don’t know if we are going to have a nice pitch to play,” he said in an interview with The Beautiful Game podcast.
“Obviously, we got a new coach and we played Sierra Leone and we beat them 2-1 in a very difficult game, then we played Sao Tome and Principe and beat them 10-0 because we played on a great pitch. A lot of us play in Europe now and we play on great pitches where it is easy to manipulate the ball around and play freely. If we had that in Nigeria it will be difficult to beat us and I am confident to say that not many teams can beat us.
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“To start with, we don’t have a good pitch because if we have that I feel like we will be unstoppable. That is one thing about Nigeria and I don’t know what’s going on behind but we could play in Asaba, we could play in Lagos or Abuja. We understand that everyone wants to see the Eagles play and Nigeria is a very big nation but at the same time, it will just be nice to have just one base where we know how it is going to be, the hotel we are going to stay and the food we eat. It just makes everything easier.”
The Everton midfielder added that they were still a young side and needed to learn.
“Our team is still young and we still have a lot to learn and even as a team we are still learning about ourselves,” he added.
“One thing I can promise Nigerian fans is that as much as the talent is still there only God knows where we will be in the next few years and they just need to be patient with us because we are trying.”
The 27-year-old’s injury is the latest setback in a difficult season for Hoffenheim, who sit 15th in the Bundesliga with 22 points from 25 games, one ahead of the relegation playoffs spot.
Voted second behind Angelo Stiller for Hoffenheim’s Player of The Month for March after recording 31 per cent of the votes, Akpoguma has made 23 appearances this season and has been cautioned eight times this season.
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