Super Eagles stars Victor Boniface and Nathan Tella have got off to a shock start in their pre-season build-up after they were trounced 5-1 by Flamingo U20s on their playing tour of Brazil.
Victor Boniface started the friendly, but was replaced after 36 minutes, while Tella was introduced after an hour.
It was the first game for former Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag in charge of Bayer Leverkusen.
“We should never have lost, especially not by such a large margin, but it was important to me not to lose any players to injuries,” explained the Dutch coach.
“It would have been better to play the match later, but it had to be done now.”
He also tried to find bright spots in the match against the Brazilians.
“The last 30 minutes were good; there were signs of improvement. But before that, it was terrible,” he said.
