Although Nigeria secured a 2-0 win over Liberia on Saturday in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, coach of the Nigerian team Gernot Rohr wasn’t entirely satisfied with the way the team scored the goals that handed them the win.
Victor Osimhen and Ahmed Musa both converted penalties to help the Nigerian team maintain their lead at the top of the table with two points ahead of their final group game tomorrow.
We got these two penalties but we were not able to score a goal playing football only these two penalties. I think they were clear penalties but I would prefer to score normal goals and we could not. I hope we can do it in three days in the final game.
“I think that the comeback of some players like Ndidi, like Iwobi who didn’t play the last time is a good thing for us. Opportunity to score for them and we have still to work on our realism offensively and there is still a lot of work to do”, the coach said at the post match conference.
Nigeria’s opponent Cape Verde need a win to leapfrog Super Eagles as group winners and also secure passage to the final round of qualifiers. Rohr is leaving no stone unturned and has hinted at handing a spot to returning striker Odion Ighalo.
A win or a draw for Nigeria will see them progress to the final rounds of the qualifiers where they will be grouped with other group winners for a two legged tie which will be played on home and away basis.
“No, the reason 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 a 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 next tuesday he will be able to help us much more”, he concluded.
