Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr insists there is “no shame” in losing to a tough Algerian side in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) semi-final on Sunday.
Odion Ighalo’s penalty cancelled out William Troost-Ekong’s own goal, with the two heavyweights locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes.
The game was then won when Riyad Mahrez curled home a free-kick deep in added time.
During Tuesday’s pre-match conference ahead of their third-place fixture with Tunisia, Rohr reflected on his team’s defeat to Djamel Belmadi’s side.
“After our loss to Algeria, we were a bit disappointed because it’s disappointing when you lose a game in the last seconds,” he told the media.
“We’ve analysed the match, we saw the video with the players yesterday and we saw also it was a good match and we gave a good fight.
“The statistics were even better for us because we had 11 shots on goal, they had only six.
“We had better possession of the ball against probably the best team so far in the tournament.
“So losing to them is not a shame and we have to be positive as we want to finish this competition well together.”
Nigeria have won each of their six third-place games in Afcon, each in regular time, keeping a clean sheet in four of these six encounters
