Super Eagles winger, Alex Iwobi is looking forward to the start of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers which recommences in September following Nigeria’s disappointing group stage exit at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Iwobi was sparingly played by head coach Gernot Rohr in Nigeria’s three Group D matches against Croatia, Iceland and Argentina.
Nigeria started the qualifiers on a losing note, beaten 2-0 by South Africa at home.
Speaking with the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, the Arsenal star who is set to travel to Singapore with the Gunners on Sunday for the International Champions Cup (ICC) where they will play against Atletico Madrid, PSG and Chelsea said:
“The squad is young and we picked important lessons that will hopefully help us going forward.
“Attention will soon shift to the Nations Cup and we must make our World Cup lessons count.
“We had a lot of hopes and believe that we could do well. We are very proud of ourselves and are going to take the positives of course.”
Iwobi opines that the Eagles were unlucky in the 2-1 defeat to Argentina on June 26 at the World Cup.
“We are just unfortunate about the last minute goal that came against Argentina led to a defeat that knocked us out of the group.
“We are taking positives but we are very happy with what we did.
“It’s not just me or my tournament, it’s Nigeria’s tournament,” the 22-year-old Iwobi stressed.
“The coach didn’t put me in that position because he wanted to try something new, try something else, so I had no problems because at the end of the day it is what the manager decides is what goes,” Iwobi reiterated.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
