Caulker plays down Sierra Leone’s Defeat to Nigeria

Sierra Leone captain Steven Caulker says his side showed Nigeria too much respect during their 2023 AFCON qualifiers opener on Thursday.

The Leone Stars started brightly and deservedly took the lead through Jonathan Morsay’s header after 11 minutes of play.

However, they allowed the Super Eagles come back into the game just six minutes later as Alex Iwobi scored the equalizer.

The comeback was complete when Victor Osimhen poked home the ball into the back of the net with four minutes left before the half time break.

Caulker said the team performed well, but paid for respecting their Nigerian counterparts.

The former Tottenham CB however stated that, they must learn from the mistake going into the game against Guinea Bissau.

“We made a lot of mistakes, obviously we will correct them in subsequent games,” Caulker offered in his post match remarks.

“It’s a young team. We have a lot of youngsters in the team. We are building for the future.”

“Obviously, we gave Nigeria too much respect and they scored two good goals against us. They have a lot of quality players in their team, but we have to learn to be ourselves and approach every minute with confidence,” He said.

Sierra Leone will host face Guinea Bissau on match day 2 of the qualifier.