Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has admitted that his team has a whole lot of work to do in terms of scoring goals during matches despite their victory over Liberia.
Victor Osimhen and Ahmed Musa scored from the spot to help the Eagles beat Liberia 2-0 in Tangier, Morocco on Saturday and moved Nigeria withini a win or a draw away from booking a World Cup play-off spot.
And speaking during the post-match press conference, Rohr stated that the Lone Star made things difficult for his team.
“The game was not easy for us and we knew before that it was going to be difficult like the first match that we played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos. Then, we scored in the first half.
“And then, we were leading 2-0 but it was even more difficult on Saturday despite the good pitch. We tried to play our football with a few touches and going vertically forward.
“But our opponents were well organised and made a big fight, so we also needed to fight very hard to accept the duel in the air and on the ground but I must admit that it was not easy.
“We got two penalties but we were not able to score a goal from open play. If you ask me, though, I think those two penalties were very clear but I would always prefer to score from open play.
“We, however, could not score from open play but I hope that we will go ahead to achieve this when we play against Cape Verde in our final qualifier at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on Tuesday.
Also Read: Six Talking Points As Super Eagles Inch Closer To Qatar 2022 With 2-0 Win Over Liberia
“I think that the return of some players like Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi who did not play last month’s qualifiers against the Central African Republic is a very good thing for the Super Eagles.
“I admit that we really need to work on our attacking play, there is still a lot of work to do.”
The German Rohr explained why Ighalo did not feature in the game against Liberia.
“The reason why we asked Ighalo to come back is that we have such a young team, they are very young 22, 23, 21, Our strikers are all very young.
“Ejuke is coming now, Chukwueze is coming back from injury. Everybody is young, we need somebody to help them with his experience in the striker position and he’s good goalscorer we know it.
“We are happy to have him back, he only arrived on Thursday that’s why he couldn’t participate in this match. I hope that in the next match on Tuesday, he will be able to help us much more.”
On the quality of the players at his disposal and yet his team failing to score from open play:”When you score two goals, it’s not a disappointment. Because when you see the penalties, there was one-to-one situation. If there was no foul, perhaps, we would have scored from normal play like you said.
“So, we are happy with the victory, we knew before the match that it would be difficult to beat Liberia. We saw the videos of their games to have lost in the last minutes when they deserved to have got a draw.
“But I am happy that we did not concede any goal. Whether penalty or not, I am very happy that we won the game and picked up all the three points on offer.”
And speaking on Cape Verde’s 2-1 win against CAR, and if put his players under pressure before Tuesday’s final game against Cape Verde, Rohr said:”Yes, of course because as things stand, we have to make a result as we cannot afford to lose the final game. But we are at home.”
The post 2022 WCQ: We Still Have Lots Of Work To Do’ – Rohr Admits Despite Eagles Win Vs Liberia appeared first on Complete Sports.
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