Nigeria’s coach Gernot Rohr has played down the Super Eagles 1-0 defeat to Cameroon in Friday’s international friendly in Austria stating that it is not important but how the team fared overall counts.
Rohr stated this on the Super Eagles Media after the game.
Despite controlling the game in the early stages, it was Cameroon who took the lead through Andre Anguissa.
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The win was Cameroon’s first against the Eagles since the final of the AFCON 2000.
The Eagles will have the opportunity to make amends when both teams clash again on Tuesday.
“The most important thing is not the result because it was just a test match,” Rohr said. “It was interesting to see some new players because we had to manage the situation and we did well, I think we had 17 shots on the goal while Cameroon only had three, they had only one on target which was the goal and we had six on target.
“The result is not the most important thing in a friendly, the most important thing is to learn, to see some interesting things, to test some new players and to see what we can do in September for the World Cup qualifiers”.
“Our domination was not good enough because we needed to score in the beginning of the game but we didn’t and when you don’t score you get punished”
Rohr revealed that William Troost-Ekong and Jamilu Collins will not be in action for the second game due to injury.
“But I saw interesting things, we had good integration of some new players, three of them played for the first time. We lost two players to injury and it will be difficult for the second game because Troost-Ekong and Collins are out and now we have to manage the difficult situation. But it is an opportunity to play with three defenders and to change a little bit with the system and try something different that’s why we are happy to have the second game.”
He praised the performances of Terem Moffi, Abraham Marcus and also Peter Olayinka after they came on in the second half.
He added:”These test matches are made to give chance to other players. Of course I will love to play with my best team, prepare them for the World Cup qualifiers in the same conditions but it was not possible because too many players could not come so it was an opportunity to see Moffi, he did well, Olayinka did well on the right side and we saw Marcus who was also good and Valentine who came in for Troost-Ekong in the end.
“We will see in the next game if they can be in our 23-man list, now there will be competition and it’s good to give them the chance and all the time we are happy to have young players.”
(Editor Paul Akhagbemhe)
