It was not easy to raise a new team, says Super Eagles coach Rohr after missing 10 players against Cape Verde

Nigeria coach – Gernot Rohr has admitted that it was difficult raising a new team to face Cape Verde in their Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup MatchDay 2 tie in Mindelo last Tuesday.

Despite missing ten [10] players of the Super Eagles team that beat Liberia 2-0 on MatchDay 1 in Lagos last Friday, Nigeria nonetheless came from behind to claim 2-1 victory against the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde.

Speaking in a post match interview, the Super Eagles coach explained the strenuous effort they invested into achieving the win:

“Yes, it was a difficult match because Cape Verde is a very good team and they are used to playing on the synthetic pitch.

“It was not easy to raise a new team under three days because 10 players were missing, but Nigeria has players all over the world and we demonstrated that today.

“They were still able to play almost at the same level with the team that played the first game against Liberia.”

“Of course, we are happy to win because it was not easy to come back after we were down 1-0. Though the second goal was unfortunate but it was as a result of our pressing that forced the goalkeeper out.”

The coach went ahead to shower praises on his newbies:

“Both Michael and Bonke did well though it was their first game after we lost all our midfielders from the first game. We already had them in our plans.

“Bonke has been doing well with Malmo in Sweden and they qualified for the Champions League and so he’d been on our scouting list for some time.

“Also for Kingsley who was also in the starting lineup of Bologna in Italy last week and they both did very well.”

Nigeria leads Group C with 6 points and will face Central African Republic twice next month.

By Francis Aduo

www.sports24ghana.com