Head coach of the Super Eagles, Jose Peseiro, has spoken about Emmanuel Dennis’ penalty miss against Portugal.
Nigeria lost 4-0 to a Cristiano Ronaldo-less side in Lisbon on Thursday night.
With the team down two goals, Dennis insisted on taking a penalty kick won by debutant Bright Osayi-Samuel, despite not being the team’s designated penalty taker, and then proceeded to see his kick saved.
The miss was given extra prominence for the manner in which the situation unfolded. Osayi-Samuel received an excellent pass from the Forest man, but was tripped in the box. Dennis, who had only come in as a sub and was not one of the designated penalty takers, quickly grabbed the ball and made for the spot.
Forward Paul Onuachu tried to get him to hand it over but was rebuffed. Coach Peseiro was pictured on the sideline calling for the ball to be handed over and was ignored. Captain William Troost-Ekong, who is one of the designated kickers, also saw his entreaties fall on deaf ears.
The subsequent miss, and the two goals that the Portuguese scored right after, had Nigerians furious. His case was not helped by fans recalled his culpability for Ghana’s goal that eliminated Nigeria from the World Cup when he failed to track Thomas Partey after coughing up possession.
Peseiro played the issue down in his post game comments, addressing just the missed penalty: “Of course he missed the penalty and after that they scored two goals. That is very sad, but about that, I speak to my players.
“So he missed the penalty, but the next time he can score. We need to defend our players, which players don’t miss penalties in the world. Any player can miss a penalty.”
