Bosnia-Herzegovina coach Safet Susic has his sights set on victory over Nigeria to boost his side’s hopes of qualifying for the Brazil 2014 World Cup Round of 16.
The Golden Lilies were narrowly beaten 2-1 by tournament favourites Argentina in their Group F clash at the Maracana Stadium on Sunday – to make their remaining group games against Nigeria and Iran a must-win affair.
A moment of magic from Lionel Messi proved to be the difference on the night, with the Barcelona forward netting Argentina’s decisive second.
The World Cup debutants will take on the Super Eagles in Cuiaba on Saturday and former Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Susic believes his team will run out winners.
He praised the performance of his side after their defeat to Argentina, saying they had learned some lessons from the game.
He admitted that he did not expect to pick up three points in the encounter, saying his target was to claim maximum points against Nigeria and Iran.
“We have still two games to play and I told my players this was not the key match (against Argentina), that we could afford to lose but not by a large margin and this is what we achieved, Skysports quoted the 59-year-old as saying on Tuesday.
“If Argentina wins all their matches, we may only need four points to qualify – everything hangs on the match between Nigeria and Iran.”
He added, “We are realistic people and our goal was to put as much resistance as possible to one of the favourites to win the title, and this is what we have done.
“I am satisfied with what I saw, especially after we had this misfortune to concede an own goal in the first couple of minutes.
“It is a huge satisfaction to take part for the first time in the World Cup and play against a great team and one of the best players in the world – and not only of today but of all time.”
Susic, who has come under criticism for opting to drop the highly-experienced VfB Stuttgart forward Vedad Ibisec to the bench minutes before Sunday’s game, said he had no regrets over the decision. Ibisec came off the bench to score for Bosnia in the encounter.
“It is difficult to play Messi or a player like him, I originally thought of man marking him but it is impossible,”IBNLive quoted him as saying.
“I gave him some freedom but instructed my players that the nearest one to him must close him down whenever he gets the ball.
“And I don’t regret at all leaving Ibisevic on the bench. We started two friendlies (before the World Cup) with the same formation and everything worked perfectly.
“I told Ibisevic before the match that we could not play with two strikers against Argentina, it would have been too risky.”
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