AFCON: Peseiro blames referee over Nigeria’s loss against Guinea Bissau

Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro has blamed the referee – Kotey Alexander, who officiated the Friday match – his side’s 1-0 loss to Guinea Bissau in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers match on Friday.

Peseiro graded the Egyptian referee decisions as poor officiating even though the Nigerians wasted tons of chances in the flow of the match.

The sole goal from Mama Balde in the 29th minute put the Guineans top of group A and the Eagles capped down to second.

The Portuguese manager told Pulse sports, “The referee failed to give the Guinea-Bissau player Mama Balde a red card after going in hard on Kevin Akoguma in the second half of the game,” said Peseiro

“The referee did not give a penalty to the Super Eagles striker after he was roughly handled in the penalty box.

“The added time given by the referee did not justify the time wasted for the treatment of the Super Eagles defender and I was expecting 10 minutes from the referee.”

However Peseiro is not going negative despite the disaster-class performance of Nigeria “It is one match, [in] one match, any team can lose. I believe if we play [again] like we played today [Friday], we [can] beat any team,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nigeria have still a chance at payback when they travel to Guinea for the return leg on the 27th of March.