{"id":156850,"date":"2025-03-26T17:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan"},"modified":"2025-04-04T13:40:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:40:30","slug":"2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan","title":{"rendered":"2026 WCQ: Give us 3 minutes we would\u2019ve beaten Nigeria \u2013 Zimbabwe coach explains gameplan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The coach of Zimbabwe, Michael Nees, has boasted that his team would have beaten Nigeria had the referee added two or three more minutes during the World Cup qualifying game at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Warriors broke the hearts of many Nigerians when they held the Super Eagles to a 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n<p>Galatasaray\u2019s Victor Osimhen headed the Super Eagles in front in the 74th minute but Zimbabwe managed to rescue a draw in back-to-back games as Tawanda Chirewa slotted past goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali from an acute angle in stoppage time.<\/p>\n<p>Nees hailed his team over their performance against Nigeria, despite the challenging conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey came with a little confidence and they wanted to turn the World Cup qualification around. We knew the longer the game goes, the slower they are going to get, it was exactly the way it was going.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course they scored but we showed that we don\u2019t give up. I think two, three more minutes we would have come home with a win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour team in defence was physical. One or two more attacks we could have finished the job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot come here under such conditions \u2014 35 degrees, 90 percent humidity \u2014 to come to Nigeria and outplay them from the first to last minute. We know where we stand, but we showed we can play football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t come here with five, six players to park the bus, we played football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey started very aggressive and wanted to finish the business, it didn\u2019t work out. We showed resilience; our team actually played like I know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The coach of Zimbabwe, Michael Nees, has boasted that his team would have beaten Nigeria had the referee added two or three more minutes during the World Cup qualifying game at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on Tuesday. The Warriors broke the hearts of many Nigerians when they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":156849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[10858,254,669],"class_list":["post-156850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-2026-wcq","tag-nigeria","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2026 WCQ: Give us 3 minutes we would\u2019ve beaten Nigeria \u2013 Zimbabwe coach explains gameplan - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The coach of Zimbabwe, Michael Nees, has boasted that his team would have beaten Nigeria had the referee added two or th ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2026 WCQ: Give us 3 minutes we would\u2019ve beaten Nigeria \u2013 Zimbabwe coach explains gameplan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The coach of Zimbabwe, Michael Nees, has boasted that his team would have beaten Nigeria had the referee added two or th ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-26T16:18:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T12:40:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742997128.335888.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1199\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"674\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"2026 WCQ: Give us 3 minutes we would\u2019ve beaten Nigeria \u2013 Zimbabwe coach explains gameplan\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-26T16:18:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T12:40:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan\"},\"wordCount\":295,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742997128.335888.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2026 WCQ\",\"Nigeria\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-give-us-3-minutes-we-wouldve-beaten-nigeria-zimbabwe-coach-explains-gameplan\",\"name\":\"2026 WCQ: Give us 3 minutes we would\u2019ve beaten Nigeria \u2013 Zimbabwe coach explains gameplan - 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