Stephen Keshi was proud of his Nigerian team after defeat to World Cup opponents Argentina.
The 2-3 result still saw Nigeria qualify for the knockout phase.
Keshi said: "I feel honoured, I feel happy. I just want to thank the players and the fans."
Lionel Messi's double stole the headlines and Keshi was keen to pay tribute to the Barcelona star.
"Messi is one heck of a player, you can't take it away from him. There are good calibre players in the Argentina team but Messi is from Jupiter.
"But we lost because we gave too much respect to the Argentines and did not play our game."
