Keshi laments

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi lamented the Super Eagles’ exit from the Brazil 2014 World Cup after their 2-0 defeat by France on Monday, saying his team deserved to progress in the tournament.

Keshi also said he did not know if he would stay on in his position after the defeat.

The defeat ended Keshi’s dream of becoming the first African coach to lead an African team to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

“I don’t know if I will stay,” Keshi, who has been tipped to become South Africa coach, said on SuperSport after the match.

“It’s a pity we lost. We did not deserve to lose. We can compete with any team. It was a good performance, but the way we lost was not good.

“There have been improvements, the players are very young and in two years, this group will be wonderful.

“Any loss is painful, be it first round or a friendly game. When you see your team playing good football and doing what you asked them to do, and all of a sudden it turns around and you lose the game. I don’t think we deserved to lose this way, but it’s part of football.

“We don’t want to start putting blame on one or two people. The blame is on the entire team. We play as a team. We win as a team. We lose as a team.