I AM praying," Berti Vogts said in a tumultuous press conference on Friday. "Praying to Ivory Coast and to God." If he is to survive the next week as Nigeria manager he may need even more than their combined powers. Vogts's travails over the past week have been almost painful to watch.

Nigeria pulled out of the Nations Cup in 1996 and were disqualified as a result from the 1998 competition, but that aside they have not failed to progress through the groups since 1986. Now they need Ivory Coast to beat Mali on Tuesday, and to beat Benin themselves if they are to progress by the skin of their teeth. Given how they have played in their opening two games, even beating their geographical neighbours, only in their second tournament and without a point to their name in either, is far from guaranteed.

Vogts appealed for sympathy after Nigeria's dismal goalless draw against Mali on Friday, and dismissed the first two of four questions he allowed journalists at the post-match press conference as "arrogant" because they underestimated Mali. Perhaps they were, and perhaps they did, but no manager ever prospered by being so openly disdainful of a national media - and the Nigerian media is more savage than most.

Besides, when he claimed that Nigeria had been unlucky because Aiyegbeni Yakubu had a goal ruled out for a borderline offside decision, he was palpably misrepresenting the match. Mali had by far the bulk of the chances and had the Seydou Keita drive that thudded against the bar seven minutes from time been three inches lower, Nigeria would already be out.

The third question quite clearly put Vogts on the spot about his future, but he chose to interpret it as an enquiry into the fitness of Kanu, who missed the game with a knee injury. When a gigantic journalist in a Marseille away shirt seized the microphone and asked bluntly, "Will you resign?", though, there was no way for Vogts to wriggle away. "I will go back to Germany," he said. "And I will think about everything - especially you." It may have been a tough question, but in the circumstances it was perfectly valid, and to give an answer so ungracious only confirmed that there is an irreconcilable divide between the German manager and the media.

Not surprisingly, the reaction to the draw has been savage. The Vanguard, a Lagos-based daily, described Nigeria variously as "a scarecrow" and as "walking blindfolded into a dark alley", and for once their hyperbole was hard to fault.

Mali, with Keita joining Mahamdou Diarra and Momo Sissoko in a physically awesome midfield are far from an easy side to break down, but equally Nigeria were wretched, utterly lacking in width and imagination. There was no lack of effort, merely a lack of wit.

That, it must be acknowledged, is not entirely Vogts' fault. A side that 10 years ago could boast the likes of Sunday Oliseh, Jay-Jay Okocha and Garba Lawal in midfield is now left with Mikel Jon Obi and not a whole lot else. He has been asked to fulfil a deep role, which he does diligently enough, but the only time Nigeria have threatened has been when he has advanced with the ball. In a tournament that has been a festival of goals, they have been like the boorish uncle at a wedding, casting a pall of boredom over all about them. "If you cannot score you cannot win the game," Vogts said. "That has been our problem."

After last Monday's 1-0 defeat to Ivory Coast - a defeat that was far more comprehensive than the scoreline suggests - Vogts was summoned to an emergency meeting with officials from the Nigerian Football Association. "We just have to go out and win," said the FA chairman Lulu Sani. "I had a meeting with the coach and that was clearly spelt out. Nigeria are the number one football-playing nation in Africa and it is a terrible start that we have had here. I am not saying the boys did not put in effort but it was clearly not enough and we have to see how we can work at 100%."

Quite how they could afford to pay off the two years that remain on Vogts' contract is unclear, but that is unlikely to be uppermost in their thinking. Sani's words, anyway, came as no great surprise. Vogts has protested that two competitive games is no yardstick by which to judge a manager, and he is probably right. A relationship that has grown increasingly attritional over the past 10 months, though, may be. His relationship with the NFA has been strained since he was criticised by them for spending all last July in Europe, in contravention of a clause in his contract that stipulated he must spend 10 days of every month in Nigeria. Vogts has since complained about the schedule for friendly matches, delays in paying his salary, and the timing of negotiations over the players' bonuses for the tournament. He admitted earlier in the month that he had considered "throwing in the towel" because of the array of problems.

"I love Africa, but I don't know how long I can put up with these problems," he said. "If football in Nigeria was organised as in Germany the team would be unbeatable."

Maybe so, but it is not, and to expect it to be so is unrealistic, as is his apparent hope that being sarcastic with the press will somehow get them off his back. The strange thing is that the players seem broadly supportive, even off the record. "As players we have to try and win so we can help him," said the Newcastle forward Obafemi Martins. "He's done some things very, very well - how we train and he's here with us."

Mikel, similarly, called on the players to "take responsibility". Perhaps they should, and the constant machinations of the NFA and the incessant pressure from the media certainly don't help, but for Vogts the disasters are starting to pile up. On Tuesday he will find out whether God, as the common Ghanaian bumper sticker insists, really is merciful.