Sierra Leone captain, Steven Caulker has claimed the Leone Stars didn’t stand up to the challenge of the Super Eagles at some point in their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Thursday.
John Keister’s men took a shock lead on 11 minutes when Jonathan Morsay nodded home Musa Kamara’s delightful cross from the right.
The Super Eagles, however, rallied back with Everton winger Alex Iwobi equalising five minutes later and Victor Osimhen netting the winner four minutes before the break.
The hosts failed to add to their lead after the break despite creating some clear cut scoring chances.
Caulker accepted Nigeria’s superiority in the game, but insisted some of his teammates were intimidated by the big names in the Super Eagles team.
“It’s a young team. We have a lot of youngsters in the team. We are building for the future,” Caulker said during his interaction with the media after the game.
“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.
“We made a lot of mistakes, obviously we will correct them in subsequent games,” he said.
The Leone Stars will face Guinea-Bissau in their game in the qualifiers at the General Lasana Conte Stadium, Conakry on Monday.
