We deserved Germany defeat –Siasia, Mikel

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We deserved Germany defeat –Siasia, Mikel

National Under-23 team coach Samson Siasia and his captain Mikel Obi have admitted that Germany were the better side in their Rio 2016 Olympics men’s football semifinal match in Sao Paulo on Wednesday.

Lukas Kostermann scored the first goal for Germany in the ninth minute while Petersen rifled home in the 88th minute to reach the final after sealing a 2-0 victory for the Europeans in the encounter.

Germany face Brazil, who defeated Honduras 6-0 in the first semis, in Saturday’s final, while Nigeria and Honduras clash in the third-place game for bronze.

However, Siasia and Mikel said the team would put the loss behind them and fight for the bronze medal with the third place match.

Siasia said, “I am disappointed. Even we had chances, we couldn’t score. The German team did better.

“It is a shame but we don’t deserve to stay in the final playing like that.”

Mikel said, “We didn’t play well. We don’t deserve to be in the final.”

But the Chelsea midfielder, who had promised to get the gold is not giving up on winning a medal,

“We are professional players and hopefully we can win a medal,” he said.

The football bronze is seen as possibly the last hope of the country picking up any medal from the Rio Games.

The entire Nigerian squad left London 2012 without any medal even though neither the men nor women’s football teams qualified for the London Games.

Nigeria won gold at the Atlanta ’96 Olympics and silver at Beijing 2008.