Kelvin Ekerete
9 June 2021
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Super Eagles coach, Gernot, Rohr, has attributed the team’s inability to grab a win against Cameroon in their doubleheader international friendly at the Stadion Wiener Neustadt in Austria to the absence of his key players.
The Indomitable Lions held the Eagles to a goalless draw on Tuesday in Austria in their second game in four days, after the Nigerians lost 1-0 in the first fixture on Friday.
The team missed the services of Napoli striker Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, Joe Aribo, Leon Balogun, Samuel Kalu, Henry Onyekuru, Ola Aina, Semi Ajayi amongst others.
Speaking after the game, the Franco-German said although he was impressed with the team’s performances in both legs, they could have done better with the inclusion of the absent stars.
“The result is not the most important thing in these friendlies; the most important thing is to test some players, to see some new faces, which was the case again today (Tuesday). We didn’t want to concede a goal and we wanted to score but we could not and that is what happens when you’re missing players like Osimhen, Chukwueze, Aribo, Kalu, Onyekuru, it is not easy but the ones available did well,” Rohr said in a video on social media made available by the Eagles media team.
“We had a lot of chances in both games but we couldn’t score, we missed a little bit of realism in front of goal but the match today was interesting.”
Rohr is also confident the team will be in the best shape when the 2022 World Cup qualifiers get underway in September against Liberia and Cape Verde.
“I think we will be ready for the World Cup qualifiers against Liberia and Cape Verde,” he added.
Nigeria will be hoping to put an end to their winless friendly run when they take on Mexico in another international friendly scheduled for July 4 in the US.