Niger Republic coach, Francois Zahoui, has admitted his side lost to a better side on Monday when they faced the Super Eagles in the African Nations Championship in Kigali, Rwanda.
Nigeria displayed their superiority over Zahoui’s side by trouncing the Menas 4-1 to move top of the group.
The Ivorian tactician stated that the Eagles were simply “too good”, as they proved their dominance with three beautiful second-half goals.
“Nigeria is a very good side, you could all see how they came back in the second half strongly and with determination,” he told SuperSport.
“We kind of lost concentration immediately the second half began and that is what finished us.
“We are in a very tough group but what we can do is to generously accept the defeat and start work on our next game because we tried our best against Nigeria but they proved to be too good.”
Zahoui who guided his native Cote d’Ivoire to a second-place finish at the 2012 African Cup of Nations, however believes his team will improve against Guinea.
“We want to try and make amends in our next game but let’s remember Guinea are a very aggressive team, but we will learn from our mistakes against Nigeria and try to give our best performance as it is a tournament not a league.”
Meanwhile, Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, has squashed reports that his team are favourites for the title.
Oliseh pleaded with Nigerians not to be carried away by the victory over Niger and they should instead lower their expectations from his team.
“We can’t talk about the title after only one game,” Oliseh warned.
“Let the players digest the win today first. Football is a different ball game nowadays and I know in Nigeria everyone expects the team to win everything, but that should not be the case because there are other teams in the competition who also want to win and they have the capacity.”
Nigeria face Tunisia in their second game on Friday.
