In the third round of the Second Leg of the World Preliminary Tournament in Africa, Nigeria drew 1-1 at home to Ghana on aggregate, but was eliminated due to an away goal disadvantage, the first time Nigeria missed the World Cup since 2006.
Nigeria ranks 30th in the world at FIFA and 3rd in Africa, after Senegal and Morocco. They drew 0-0 away to Ghana in the first leg, and they had a certain advantage at home in the second leg, but they did not expect to only draw 1-1 with the opponent in the end, and finally eliminated because of the disadvantage of away goals.
After missing the World Cup for 48 hours, Nigeria made an important decision to fire the entire national team coaching staff. Previously, Syria even directly disbanded the core department of the Football Association after the top 12 out, including the coaching staff and logistics support department. I have to say that they are really bold and do things vigorously.
There is no doubt that whenever there is a similar dismissal of the entire coaching staff of the national team after the big match, the fans will definitely target the Football Association and the national football team. But in fact, the national football team has changed 3 head coaches in this World Preliminary Tournament, what role does that play?
After Li Xiaopeng took office, the Football Association recruited most of the highly respected former international footballers into the coaching team, including Ou Chuliang, Zheng Zhi, Sun Jihai, Sun Xiang, Zhao Junzhe, Chen Yang, Shao Jiayi, Yu Genwei and Li Jinyu, etc. Such a luxurious coaching team accompanied the international footballers to train twice, and as a result, the national football team only drew 1 draw and 3 defeats in the last 4 rounds without tasting a victory.
Former national football coach Milu bluntly said that there is no difference between Li Xiaopeng and Li Tie coaching the national football team, because the players' mental outlook has not been improved, and everyone is thinking of hurrying home.
In fact, everyone scolded Lippi for receiving a sky-high annual salary of 20 million euros, but did not bring anything. But in fact, people who have watched the national football game know that Lippi is the guarantee of the confidence of the players off the field, at that time, everyone dared to make moves, there was no fear of hands and feet, and even Zhang Xizhe could play out of the feeling of a master midfielder. Moreover, his on-the-spot command and substitution adjustment skills are absolutely difficult for Li Tie and Li Xiaopeng to match. If it were not for the defender of the national football team, the three center-backs were blown up by Iran in the Asian Cup, and the top 40 match faced Syria Zhang Linpeng to send Oolong, Lippi would not be angry even if he did not even want a high salary of 20 million euros, and directly resigned. Don't say that local coaches are not necessarily weaker than foreign coaches, Lippi' World Cup champion coach, the disadvantage is expensive, but the improvement of the actuality of the national football team is also visible to the naked eye.