Former Nigeria goalkeeper Emmanuel Babayaro claims that the current Super Eagles squad is nothing more than "an average team."

The Nigerians suffered a disappointing 2-0 loss to Croatia during the opening game of their tournament.

An Oghenekaro Etebo own goal and a Luka Modric penalty were enough to see Croatia claim all three points in that game.

And now Babayaro claims the squad must accept their limitations if they are to have any success in the remaining two games of the group stages.

"We deceive ourselves too much. Nigeria have been an average team, we're not spectacular but we won't accept the fact that we're an average team," Babayaro told Goal.com.

"We lie to ourselves saying we're that good. But I will keep saying, as long as we don't accept our inadequacies we are not going to improve, we have to tell ourselves the truth in order to work hard.

"If we tell ourselves we are that good, there will be no room for improvement, but if we tell ourselves we are not that good, which is the truth, we will have a lot of room to improve then we will work hard."