Lesotho national team coach Leslie Notsi has explained why his players were inconsolable after their game with Nigeria at the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Friday.

Likuena lost 2-1 to the Super Eagles in the penultimate round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying Group C to remain second from bottom in the pool with nine points from as many matches.

Meanwhile, Nigeria remained in third position with 14 points from the same number of games and in with a shot at qualifying for the global showpiece to be hosted by USA, Mexico and Canada.

Lesotho had held Nigeria goalless at the break and had two opportunities towards the end of the game to equalise when they were trailing 2-0.

But it wasn’t to be as they still endured the defeat and their coach said they wanted to win so bad hence the tears after the final whistle.

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“Yes, we wanted it more,” said Notsi (via Idiski Times).

“And this was a game whereby we said look, we need to go out there enjoy the game, dig deep because we knew that we are going to dig deep. And like I said earlier, creating those goal scoring opportunities and missing the manner in which we missed, yes, the boys felt like they have disappointed themselves, disappointed the supporters.

“But at the end of the day, we learn from those kind of things, and it makes us a better team in terms of competitiveness. So there are a lot of good truly that we can take out of this match.”