Super Eagles midfielder Alexander Iwobi has put the blame of the poor performances of the national team on bad substandard Nigeria pitches NPFLUpdates reports.
The Super Eagles team despite boasting of an array of football Stars always struggle to beat African opponents on him soil.
Last year, a lowly Sierra Leone team despite loosing narrowly at the Taslim Balogun Stadium Lagos, gave the national team a run for their money. The pitch of the stadium was flooded after a heavy downpour making it difficult for the players to navigate.
Meanwhile, an AFCON qualifier in Morocco against Sao Time and Principe saw the Super Eagles score ten goals arguably because they played on a better turf.
Reacting to the effect of bad Nigeria pitches on the Super Eagles, Iwobi highlighted that it’s seriously affecting the team negatively.
Read also: AFCONQ: We Lost Because Of The Referee – Peseiro
According to the former Arsenal playmaker, Super Eagles players mostly play on good pitches for their clubs in Europe, but on home soil reverse is the case because of the poor State of the turfs.
Iwobi claims poor Nigeria pitches affect S’Eagles
“We don’t know if we are going to have a nice pitch to play,” Alex Iwobi told Beautiful Game Podcast.
“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.”
“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 we 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.”
