After seeing his men hold the Indomitable Lions to a 0-0 draw, the German tactician is confident the Super Eagles will be ready for the Lone Star
Nigeria will be ready for September’s World Cup qualifier against Liberia, according to coach Gernot Rohr.
The German tactician disclosed this after the Super Eagles played out a 0-0 draw with Cameroon in Tuesday’s international friendly.
Despite relying on makeshift defenders, the three-time African champions ended the encounter at the Wiener Neustadt Stadium on a no winner, no vanquished note.
Although Rohr rued the chances missed by his team – which he attributed to the absence of key players – he is upbeat that his team would be set when their quest to qualify for Qatar 2022 commences against their West African foes.
“The result is not the most important thing in these friendlies,” he said on Super Eagles’ Instagram handle.
“To most important thing is to test some players, to see some of these new faces. That was the case today, we didn’t want to concede.
“We wanted to score but we could not, but when you are missing players like [Victor] Osimhen, [Samuel] Chukwueze, [Joe] Aribo], [Samuel] Kalu and Henry [Onyekuru], it’s not easy.
“These players came in the middle of their holidays to work hard for ten days with us.
“The fruit of the work will come. I think we will be ready in September for our World Cup qualifier against Liberia.”
Rohr also reserved special accolades for Valentine Ozornwafor who held sway in Nigeria’s backline.
In the absence of William Troost-Ekong, the Galatasaray man provided cover for goalkeeper Maduka Okoye, while Nantes forward Moses Simon was drafted to play the left-back role.
Overall, the 67-year-old scored the former Enyimba centre-back very high, disclosing he has justified his senior national team call-up.
“We had a problem building the defence, so we played for the first time with Valentine and he did very well,” Rohr continued.
“He finished the match with Moses Simon who played in the left-back position and we didn’t concede a goal.
“I am very happy for Valentine. A lot of people did not understand why he was with us and he showed the reasons today. He did very well with his left foot in the central defence.”
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