AFCON qualifier opener: Why we lost to Super Eagles – Leone stars

Leone Stars of Sierra Leone skipper, Steven Caulker, has said they made mistakes against Nigeria and were well punished for it.

Despite scoring first in the 11th minute through Jonathan Morsay, Leone Stars suffered a 2-1 defeat to Nigeria’s Super Eagles in the opening group A game of the 2023 African Cup of Nations qualifier.

During a post-match conference, the former Fulham defender said they respected Nigeria’s players too much due to the quality of their team.

“We made a lot of mistakes, obviously we will correct them in subsequent games.

“It’s a young team. We have a lot of youngsters in the team. We are building for the future,”Caulker said during his interaction with the media after the game.

“Obviously, we gave Nigeria too much respect and they scored two good goals against us. They have a lot of quality players in their team,” he said.

Sierra Leone will hope to bounce back strongly when they face Guinea Bissau on matchday 2 of the qualifier.