Nigeria-Denmark – B. Milutinovic: “It's hard to come back after two goals against us”

Bora MILUTINOVIC, NIGERIA team coach”.

“Firstly I would like to congratulate DENMARK and I wish them the best of luck for the next round. Regarding our defeat, the team lost concentration when we were 2-0 down, it’s hard to come back after two goals against us. We didn’t play badly but we lost and we are disappointed. We now have to think about the future. After being 2-0 down, we had some good chances but we weren’t realistic enough. Now in any case it’s too late. I don’t want to blame any particular player, losing is always difficult. We shouldn’t forget that these are the same players that won matches and lost today. Everyone played as well as they could but unfortunately we didn’t win. Everybody wants to be world champions. We are the best team in Africa but we didn’t prove it today. As for me, yes it’s true I’ve always been eliminated in the second round of World Cup finals. But if there is any coach in the world who can claim to have a better record than me, let him say so. As for my future, I’m a football coach, it’s the only thing I know how to do. If anyone wants to call me… Now, I’m going to get back to a normal life and spend some time with my family. As far as I know, I haven’t said goodbye to NIGERIA yet. Anyway, I don’t even know what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning. It’s true that in this World Cup, I was, in a way, involved with four different teams: UNITED STATES, YUGOSLAVIA, MEXICO and of course NIGERIA. I wish MEXICO good luck. I coached them for the World Cup in 1986, and tomorrow they are playing one of the best teams in the world. I hope they will win. Of course I’m also thinking of YUGOSLAVIA as it’s my home country. But for now I’m staying to watch the remainder of the competition”.