Nigeria “avenged” the defeat to the Central Africa Republic with a good response in the return-leg of their World Cup qualifiers in Douala on Sunday and the outcome according to head Coach Gernot Rohr shows that his “young team” don’t give up easily.
Goals from Leon Balogun and Victor Osimhen ensured the Super Eagles remain top of group C and bounce back to winning ways after a shock 1-0 defeat in Lagos.
The Coach tweaked his team setup like he promised after the disaster in Lagos, that and handing captain Ahmed Musa a starter’s spot contributed to the strong display by the team, Rohr recounts in his post-match remarks.
“It was a good reaction by my team. We lost the other day very unlucky; in the last minute. So everybody wanted to avenge that defeat and we did it very well even we could have scored a third or fourth goal,” said the Coach.
“We also changed the system; we played three in the back and I think this helped us also, and with the leadership of the Musa, to win this game.
“It is not easy to beat this Central Africa Republic you saw it. They made a lot of fouls but fortunately we don’t have any big injury.”
Next for the Super Eagles are back to back games in the World Cup qualifiers against Liberia and Cape Verde next month.
With the 1-0 victory against Liberia, Cape Verde closed the gap with Nigeria to just 2 points, but the pressure isn’t on the three-time African Champions and they’ll prepare for the fixtures with a different mentality.
“So now we can prepare in a calm space for the next games in November and I hope that everything will be fine at the end of the day.
“They tried what they do, they’re fighting we have a young team that can make some mistakes, it’s what happened the other day but they never give up.”
