Keshi praises Super Eagles

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has hailed his side's "strength and mentality" following their pulsating African Nations Championship quarter-final win over Morocco on Saturday.

Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has hailed his side's "strength and mentality" following their pulsating African Nations Championship quarter-final win over Morocco on Saturday.

In what was possibly the most breathtaking 90 minutes of football during this year's tournament, the Super Eagles executed a comeback of epic proportions to beat the Atlas Lions 4-3 at the Cape Town stadium.

"It was something very unique. It happened when I was in Mali, 2010 Nations Cup, against Angola in the first game, we were four goals down, 12 minutes, we came back to score four to tie 4-4," Keshi told Supersport on Sunday.

"This one was something else though. I just want to say thanks to my players for the character and the mentality that they brought in the second half, they're just awesome," added the Super Eagles coach.

During Keshi's tenure at the helm of Nigerian football, the recurring theme has been that of establishing a team identity, something which the football fraternity would recognise as the Nigerian way of doing things on the soccer field.

"This was not us playing in the first half. It was like we gave too much respect to Morocco. They are a good team, but we have to be ourselves and we have to take our game to them.

"Second half I wanted to see different character, I wanted to see the same character that we brought into the Bafana Bafana game (a 3-1 win in the group stage which knocked South Africa out), or more. So they came in and they said, we are not going home, we want to be here for the final, and that's what happened," explained Keshi.